Culture

Midgitte Bardot takes aim at centuries of exploitation in new Southbank Centre show, 'Shooting From Below'

Pic by Holly Revell

“Not all people without dwarfism are under the presumption that people with dwarfism are there for entertainment as pets, toys, fetishes, dream sequences, musical numbers… just most.”

With this razor‑sharp line, performance artist Midgitte Bardot - the drag alter‑ego of Tamm Reynolds - sets the tone for Shooting From Below, arriving at London’s Southbank Centre this April. The new work, staged in the Purcell Room, promises a fierce, funny and unflinching interrogation of who is really “dwarfing” who.

The show uses Bardot’s signature fusion of musical theatre, drag, live art and movement to explore the violence, absurdity and power dynamics that shape the lives of people with dwarfism. With characteristic bite, she asks why she seeks violence in response to oppression, what the balance of power might look like if “the little guys” finally seized it, and even fantasises about a land governed entirely by Midgittes. In such a world, she wonders, could non‑dwarfs eventually find themselves on their knees?

Pic by Holly Revell

Crucially, Bardot also reclaims her own name. Pronounced “midge‑eat”, it deliberately distances itself from the ableist slur still aimed at the dwarf community - a community that continues to face harassment in public spaces, on stage, and in mainstream media.

Reynolds - who makes live-art, text-based performance and music - has spent over a decade refining the art of skewering oppressive systems with sharp humour and sharper social commentary. Their work consistently “punches upwards”, lampooning power rather than those with less of it, while tackling themes such as ableism, misrepresentation, and (with tongue firmly in cheek) “the pressing issue of small dogs playing with big dogs”.

Debuting Midgitte Bardot in 2014, Reynolds has transformed the refusal to be diminished into a compelling performance practice, spanning venues across the UK and beyond. Their accolades include the LADA Katherine Araniello Bursary, an Artsadmin Award, a New Queers On The Block Commission, a Parallel Perspectives Residency, and a BAC Bloom Commission. Bardot has appeared in British Vogue and the Royal Court’s Sound of the Underground, and regularly performs with Duckie, Marlborough Productions and other experimental arts collectives. A sold‑out work‑in‑progress showing of Shooting From Below took place at the Southbank Centre in 2024.