Live Art Bookshop: Apocrypha Launch

Date: Wednesday 28 Oct 2026
Venue: Live Art Development Agency
Location: The Garrett Centre
Timings: 7:00pm (doors open 6:30pm)
Price: Pay What You Can (£0–£12)

Montez Press presents the launch of Kasra Jalilipour’s Apocrypha featuring performances by Jalilipour, Dæmon Clelland, Krishna Istha, and Shabnam Shahbazi on Wednesday 28th October from 6:30pm at Live Art Development Agency.

Kasra Jalilipour’s Apocrypha brings together trans masculine saints, Jinns and lesbian cockroaches in these three performance texts. Subverting Iranian folk tales and early Catholic iconographies, Apocrypha alchemises tradition and the weight of history into a collection that is both revelatory and rich with resistance.

‘Here we have saints for the saintless. Bemuscled archetypes creeping up our storylines all the way from antiquity to better stalk our fantasies, and continue their trade in classic barstool-wisdom as they do so. Holding court and telling tall tales. And in Apocrypha, Jalilipour’s gallery of ancient gods, lost girls and cockroaches remind us that these fantasies are the same as they ever were—simply the devastating need to know that we are okay and are allowed to exist.’

– Carle Gent, author of The Balls of Alban

Scores, from Montez Press, is an imprint that publishes scripts and performance texts written by artists, theatre-makers and performance-makers whose practices incorporate elements from both the theatrical and visual arts.

Kasra Jalilipour

Kasra Jalilipour (1995. Esfahan) is an Iranian artist and writer, based in the UK. Their interdisciplinary practice takes on the forms of sculpture, installation, moving image, text, and live performance. Through a positive obsession with narratives of otherness, they use speculation and fiction to rewrite and reshape forgotten histories through a queer lens. The visual and textual aesthetics of their work are often inspired by imagery and literature from pre-modern cultural and religious practices with a particular interest in the erotic and humour.

More information

A black and white photograph of an Iranian trans-masculine person wearing a large chain necklace and harness, sniffing poppers.

Kasra Jalilipour. Courtesy of the artist.

Dæmon Clelland

Dæmon Clelland is a Scottish Artist, shapeshifter and producer whose post-disciplinary practice spans Live Art, XR + VR, SFX prosthetics, Audio/Visual and 360° film. Working across play, parody, and politics, they conjure fantastical beings through haunted metamorphosis, interrogating patriarchal systems of representation, visibility, power, and environment. Grounded in sociological research, their work unpicks perceptions of men, myths and monsters. Utilising technology & experimental processes to build Immersive queer worlds defined by intimacy, activated through experience and interaction.

More information

Dæmon Clelland. Courtesy of the artist.

Krishna Istha

Krishna Istha is a performance artist, comedian and screenwriter. They create socially-conscious form-pushing works about taboo or underrepresented experiences of gender, race and sexual politics.

Their current practice, and trilogy of performance work, uses coding and creative technologies as a live dramaturgical tool, allowing non-performers to collaborate and inhabit the stage completely as themselves. Krishna is currently touring the second show in this trilogy, SECOND TRIMESTER(‘An experimental powerhouse’ – A Youngish Perspective ★★★★, ‘The audience screams in hysterics’ – Attitude Magazine ★★★★★), a show created and performed with their mother.

Krishna’s previous show, First Trimester (‘Addictive’ What’s on Stage ★★★★★, ‘An antidote of the age’ – Irish Times ★★★★) was a durational theatre experience in which Krishna interviewed hundreds of participants live on stage to find a sperm donor. It won Judge’s Choice Award (Dublin Fringe), was nominated for Green Rooms Award (Australia), and an Off West End Award (Idea Production: Experimental Theatre).

Recently, Krishna wrote on Netflix’s SEX EDUCATION, was one of the comedians on the Netflix Comedy Special Hannah Gadsby’s Gender Agenda, and is currently writing their first feature film for BBC films.

More information

Krishna Istha. Image Christa Holka

Shabnam Shahbazi

Shabnam Shahbazi is a multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary artist, creative practitioner and enabler whose work
explores home, belonging, memory, ancestry, identity and our relationship with the wider living world.
Born in Tehran and arriving in Britain following the 1979 Iranian Revolution, Shahbazi’s practice has evolved through
over four decades of inquiry into displacement, belonging and the search for home. Moving across theatre,
performance, spoken word, visual culture, participatory practice and embodied research, her work explores how
personal, familial and collective histories are held and transmitted.
Her investigation into home has led her towards the archive and, through this journey, into ancestral and family
constellation practices, bringing together creative, embodied and relational approaches to explore memory,
connection and belonging.

More information

Shabnam Shahbazi. Courtesy of the artist.

Access Information

Event information
This is a seated event. Various seating options will be available including fold out chairs, office chairs, a sofa and a bench. All are welcome to join in a relaxed space and are free to come and go as they please. The lighting will be fixed with no sudden changes and microphone amplification will be used. There are disposable masks and hand sanitiser available. After the talk there will be an opportunity to socialise.

LADA space
The building is wheelchair accessible by lift and provides a wheelchair accessible ground-floor bathroom. All bathrooms are gender inclusive. There is no isolated quiet space inside, but there is a small quiet outdoor area. Some of the art on display in the space includes naked bodies. You can find more information and see photos of the space here. Should you have any particular access requirements, please email [email protected] and we will be happy to offer further support.

Content notes
Please email [email protected] if you would like more information on what to expect.

Please note this event will be recorded.

Banner image credit:

Kasra Jalilipour, Apocrypha of The Later Saints, CLAY, 2024. Image Lizzie Coombes