Dickie Beau

Richard Boyce, known professionally as Dickie Beau, is a British film and stage actor. His stage performances often involve lip-synching to archival audio recordings.

Early life
At the age of five, Beau played the Handsome Prince in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and knew he wanted to act. His childhood idols included Judy Garland and Marilyn Monroe.

Beau trained in drama at Manchester University, and subsequently worked in a Milan theatre company, Teatro della Contraddizione, whose work was inspired by Pina Bausch.

Technique
Beau's use of lip-synching was inspired by the drag queen Suppositori Spelling, who he met in London in 2006. An additional inspiration for his technique was the journalist Richard Meryman. Beau sometimes lip-synchs to his own voice, sometimes to those of other performers. He calls the technique "rememberment", and it has also been described as "hauntological dramaturgy".

Awards

 * 2012 London Cabaret Award for Best Alternative Performer
 * 2013 Jardin d’Europe Contemporary Dance
 * 2014 Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award
 * 2017 Best Supporting Male in the Off-West End Theatre Awards

Personal life
Beau is openly gay, having known his sexual orientation from the age of around five or six. Beau practises meditation.