16 Sep 2024

What is After the Act about?
After the Act is a verbatim musical about Section 28, the legislation which meant local authorities couldn’t ‘promote’ homosexuality, which was in law from 1988-2003. It sets out to tell the story of this one piece of legislation, from the build up that saw the law being passed through government to the legacy it left behind. It uses first-hand testimonies to paint portraits of the people who were most affected by it - whether that’s teachers teaching under it, students at school during the time it was in law or the activists that fought against it. It also centres the parliamentary debates and the way it was discussed in the media to show the difference between how it was being discussed in these very public forums vs the reality of how it was affecting people on a personal level. 

How did you come up with this idea?
Billy and I (co-writers) had worked with Frew (composer) on a Christmas show called Joan of Leeds back in 2019. It was a really satisfying collaboration, and we knew we wanted to work together again. When Billy brought the idea to us, we were all struck by how little we knew about Section 28. We were all at school during the tail end of it, and suddenly it explained why we all had little or no LGBT+ inclusion in our sex education at school. As three queer people, this made us want to explore why this legislation came to pass and what the widespread effects of it were. So that’s where we started from!

How did you start making the show?
We began at various archives in London, looking through news media archives and seeing the headlines from the time that labelled LGBT people as “looney lezzies” and other derogatory terms. We mined those archives to try to get a real sense of how the debate of LGBT inclusion in education was being framed, and how queer people were generally being talked about in these public arenas. We also began looking through the Hansard archives and were really shocked by the language politicians were using to talk about these communities. 
Then, we did a call out to speak to teachers, students, activists or anyone who wanted to talk to us about their experience of Section 28. We conducted about 30 interviews with people and that felt like such an immense privilege that people wanted to share their stories with us. It felt like for a lot of people this was the first time they’d ever really spoken about it. Then we set about the process of setting all this material to music. 

Did you discover anything surprising when you looked into the archives?
The memory that always stays with me when I think about those days in the archive is seeing a news article written by headteachers across the UK who all said they would fire teachers working in their schools if they found out they were gay. That made me feel really emotional, thinking about all those teachers who would have to hide a part of themselves in order to keep their jobs. And all the students who needed it who were deprived of having queer role-models. That wasn’t part of the law, by the way, that you couldn’t be a teacher if you were gay. And we don’t know any instances where a gay teacher was fired for that reason - but the fact it was said in the mainstream media by all these headteachers really moved me and showed how this kind of view was part of the hysteria of the time. 

Can you tell me about the characters in the play?
That’s a hard question as there’s so much multi-roling, but there are some characters which have come from the interviews we conducted that make the spine of the show. To name a few, I play a character called Catherine who was a closeted PE teacher under Section 28, and she talks about that experience. We also have two characters called Sarah and Charlotte who were activists fighting against Section 28 - they were actually 2 of the people who staged the famous BBC news invasion and abseiled into the House of Lords when the bill was passed. Then, there’s also LB, a student under Section 28 who underwent conversion therapy in their church. I don’t want to tell you too much about everyone - but they all have amazing stories they very generously shared with us, and their accounts make this production what it is. 

Are you excited about performing in Liverpool?
Very! I adore Liverpool as a city, and am really excited to return there with this show. This is the first time we’ve ever performed one of our shows there and to be performing in the Playhouse feels like an honour. 

Why look back on Section 28 now?
The show looks at how laws like this can come into action, and the effects they leave behind. That feels really important at a time like this when trans rights are being discussed in the way they are by politicians and in the media. The conversations and language that was at play and that were happening about gay and lesbian people in the 1980s are being repeated against trans people now, and we need to be aware of that and how this all works, and where it can lead. I would hope the show encourages us to recognise this pattern, and disrupt it in any ways we can - showing solidarity, attending protests, arguing against our government when they speak in this way and invoke harmful policies.

What are your hopes for the style of this show?
It’s a musical, so we hope people get the tunes stuck in their head! It’s a serious subject matter and there’s a lot of heartbreak in the show, but there’s also a lot of joy and fun. We hope the fact it’s a musical means it will appeal to a wide group of people and can prove an informative and good night out.  

Who do you think will love this play?
Anyone who likes new musicals, anyone who is interested in history, and particularly this crucial bit of recent queer history! It’s interesting to listen to the words of this play and think it really wasn’t that long ago. Also, it’s got a banging soundtrack thanks to Frew. It’s filled with 80s nostalgia, references and synths! I hope a lot of people love this play as much as we do. 

After the Act is at Liverpool Playhouse from Thu 24 Oct to Sat 26 Oct, click here for more information and tickets.