***** (5 stars)
“Utterly superb”
Wow! What a start to my Fringe – two absolute crackers on my first day, and they could hardly be more different if they tried…
The Elves and the Shoemaker at the Scottish Storytelling Centre on the Royal Mile is a delightful combination of masterly storytelling and magically inspired puppetry, with something to please everyone – and should not be missed.
The BBC’s First Homosexual is a brilliantly crafted play which everyone over the age of approximately twelve – though probably one should say sixteen – should see. Created from material held in the BBC’s archives – including extracts from the original radio broadcast, draft scripts, and internal BBC discussions – the play brings to life the process by which the first-ever broadcast documentary on the subject of male homosexuality – Homosexuality: The Condition, The Cult and The Crime – was brought to homes all over Britain and wherever else the BBC’s Home Service could be heard.
Stephen M Hornby has done a brilliant job of dealing with what the programme notes call “basically a load of outdated and offensive claptrap” and producing a nuanced and multi-layered picture of life and attitudes in Britain in the 1950s. The process by which the BBC documentary came into being, the guarded language used, the careful strategizing, the choice of approach geared towards countering the objections within the BBC itself, the challenges of finding ‘experts’ willing to speak out on what was both a controversial and a ‘not nice to speak about in decent homes’ subject, and extracts from the documentary itself, are interwoven with the story of young man, Tom, who is struggling with the conflict between his feelings and the expectations of society.
Three actors – Jolyon Benson, Max Lohan, and Andrew Pollard – between them play goodness knows how many parts. Jolyon is superb as the young, ardent, hopeful Tom, who works in Burton’s the tailors in Manchester. Max and Andrew between them play a wonderful range of characters ranging from the perfectly RP fairly high-up BBC man to the extraordinary trio of young women Tom’s mother invites round for tea on consecutive weekends. Judging from the murmurs of recognition, the widely differing characters and situations Tom encounters when he ventures into various gay haunts in London were all extremely accurate and well-remembered…
Scenes and characters change in split seconds and with the minimum props. The action is played behind and around a desk, in a very small and low-ceilinged acting space. Lightning-fast adjustments to costume and accent present a fabulously rich gallery of portraits, quite wonderful to behold. Lighting and sound underline the action and assist the rapid transitions of time and place.
It’s probably hard for younger people today to have the slightest idea of quite what it was like to be gay in the second half of last century. I was born in 1950 and didn’t really realise I was gay till the 1980s but, being a girl, didn’t have quite the same struggle as men did, since Queen Victoria apparently refused to believe that such things as lesbians could exist… However, I well remember having to watch my back and my pronouns and never being able to talk about my home life or really be myself apart from two hours once a month with the Nottingham group of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement!
It’s appalling to hear the 1950s attitudes towards homosexuality; the language used to describe us, the concept of its being a curable ‘disease’, or a matter of choice. Groans of recognition met the revelation of the name of one ardent protester against homosexuals – Mary Whitehouse – who chose to regard us as “crippled individuals, a filth we must clean up”… Things have changed a lot since then, and life is considerably easier for some of us – story lines don’t have to end with us dying miserably alone, and public figures and presenters on TV can be openly part of the rainbow community.
But.
Part of me wonders if things are indeed so very different today, especially in Africa and south Asia where discrimination and oppression are on the rise again… How many Toms are there all around the world, feeling isolated and unsupported and, when they hear the equivalent of that 1950s BBC documentary, believing that their only option is to try to be ‘cured’ so that they can live the life of love and raise the family they yearn for?
Grab all the young rainbow people you know, and all the old-and-grumpy [and not so old] homophobes you may encounter, and insist that they see this show! May some of them, at least, be changed by it and appreciate just how hard it was to be different in ‘the old days’…
And may some of them determine to ensure that people never have to suffer such appalling treatment in future!
Thank you to all concerned in such a brilliant production!
The BBC’s First Homosexual, Assembly George Square (The Crate) Venue 8, The Fringe, Runs until Sunday 16th August for more information and tickets go to: The BBC’s First Homosexual | Edinburgh Festival Fringe
**NOTICE: Assembly George Square THE CRATE is not in George Square itself but on Buccleuch Street just behind the Square!! Allow yourself plenty of time to find it, or miss an outstandingly good show…
ScotsGay Arts 