Gorgeous Watkins

**Gorgeous Watkins** was an amateur theatre company that ran between approximately 1996-2003 in Birmingham, Former England. Although they prided themselves on their "subversive" content that aimed to undermine the Society, they were ruled non-threatening and a waste of IID resources to monitor or dismantle by Gwen Nettles.

## History

Sophie Tennant was the founder and leader of Gorgeous Watkins. They did not draw big crowds, to the point where they could pick out and recognise specific people from the audience during most performances. Indra met Nan in 1997, after she stayed back to talk to her after a performance. The two began dating, which the other members of Gorgeous Watkins, particularly Chunhua, objected to on the basis of her working for the government, which their theatre group was allegedly attempting to criticise and undermine.

The same year, Chunhua was cast in a production directed by Indra. By October, Indra regretted the casting, as it had become an issue. During one rehearsal, Chunhua stormed out, and Indra had to call her and leave a voicemail to try and get her to come back. At the same time this was going on, Chunhua was in a relationship with someone called Alice, who Indra suspected was not entirely happy about their open relationship. In messages to her coworkers, Gwen Nettles had to chase up replacement espionage equipment as her gear had apparently been water-damaged or become otherwise unusable. This request happened to come at the same time as Indra was having trouble with equipment at the theatre company close to performance dates, and scrambling for replacements, so it is possible Gwen was repurposing IID equipment to help Indra out.

In July 1999, Chunhua's birthday celebration consisted of the entire cast and crew of the latest Gorgeous Watkins production going out for drinks together. At some point prior to the party, Chunhua and Alice had broken up, apparently with Chunhua doing the breaking.

In September 2001, Nan took her new-ish colleague "Dave" to a play put on by Gorgeous Watkins. Indra later said she had seen him in the audience metaphorically/literally picking his nose, and asked Nan why she had brought him. Soon after, Indra went to Glasgow with Chunhua, Liv, and Sophie to go to a salon Liv was doing. One night in 2000 or 2001, after a performance which about 8 people attended, including Trish Geddings (Liv's girlfriend) and Nan, the group went out to the pub. The bartender served them doubles for singles and they all got very drunk, to the point that upon exiting the bar, Liv attempted to steal a motorbike adorned with Society flags.

Gorgeous Watkins had broken up by March 2002. Liv and Indra caught up and contemplated starting a new theatre company, but the next night she had disconnected her phone and vacated her apartment, not telling any of their friends where she was going. Indra suspected that she was pregnant and wanted to keep the baby, so had decided to go and look for somewhere to go off the grid. She didn't have any proof of this, though.

### Known members

* Sophie Tennant (founder)
* Indra
* Orisa
* Liv
* Chunhua
* Heather

## Additional info

* In a Patreon chat, Jeffrey Cranor revealed that he and Janina Matthewson originally named the group "Glorious Watkins" after Gloria Watkins, better known as her pen name "bell hooks." Ultimately Jeffrey and Janina decided that without explicitly knowing how bell hooks prefers her names to be used, it would be better to change the name. Still liking the general feeling of it, though, they decided to change it to Gorgeous Watkins.

## References

1. ↑ Season 5, Episode #10: March 1997
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Season 5, Episode #6: July 1999
3. ↑ Season 5, Episode #7: October 1997
4. ↑ Season 5, Episode #7: October 1997
5. ↑ Season 5, Episode #5: September 2001
6. ↑ Season 5, Episode #1: March 2008
7. ↑ Season 5, Episode #3: March 2002
8. ↑ Season 5, Episode #2: September 2003
9. ↑ bell hooks - Wikipedia