EVERY WRONG DIRECTION CIC
C.I.C. no: 17225311
Every Wrong Direction CIC produces trauma-informed performance and creative discussion experiences that use humour, emotional honesty and human connection to explore difficult realities, encourage meaningful conversation and help break cycles of silence, shame and disconnection. All work is underpinned by safeguarding, emotional safety and trauma-informed practice.
Featured Performers & Shows
Every Wrong Direction CIC works with performers whose shows use lived experience, creativity, humour, music, storytelling or theatre to open up honest conversations. The work featured here is chosen because it can help audiences explore difficult human themes with care, connection and proper safeguarding.
These shows are not therapy and no audience member is expected to disclose personal experiences. They are creative starting points for reflection, discussion and kinder conversations.
Created & Performed by: Paul Diello
Show: Epicene
Format: Cabaret / live music / personal storytelling
Themes: Gender, identity, self-acceptance, shame, joy, LGBTQ+ experience
Suitable for: LGBTQ+ audiences, allies, community groups, creative discussion events
Epicene is Paul Diello’s gender-blending celebration of iconic women in music: part cabaret, part concert, part personal story. Paul is an award-winning Brighton-based musician and performer whose work has toured widely, with appearances across the UK, Ireland, Germany, France, Holland and America. He won Best Solo Artist at the Brighton Music Awards in 2010 and has performed at festivals including Brighton Pride, Edinburgh Fringe and The Big Chill. In Epicene, Paul and his band reimagine songs made famous by artists including Kate Bush, Madonna, Whitney Houston, Cher, Joni Mitchell, Björk and PJ Harvey. Around the music, Paul tells his own story of growing up feeling different, wanting to step outside the roles expected of him and finding his way towards self-acceptance. The show has played Brighton Fringe, Pride events, theatres, arts festivals and LGBTQ+ events, with sold-out and five-star reviewed performances. The word epicene means genderless, or outside the binary. The show uses that idea with warmth, humour, pop music and emotional honesty. It is not a lecture and it does not preach. It invites the audience into Paul’s experience through songs, memories and cabaret energy, creating a space where people can think about gender, shame, joy, identity and the freedom to be more fully themselves. Scene Magazine review described the show as Paul Diello’s “gender free world” and said “there was never a dull moment.” The same review highlights the personal centre of the piece: a child growing up in Worthing, experimenting with make-up, using pillowcases as long hair and trying to understand where he fitted. For Every Wrong Direction CIC, Epicene sits strongly within trauma-informed creative practice because it combines performance, lived experience, humour and music with themes that many people recognise: not fitting in, hiding parts of yourself, shame, difference and the long journey towards self-acceptance. It is especially relevant for LGBTQ+ audiences and allies, and for anyone interested in gender, identity, belonging and kinder conversations.