After The Act @ Royal Court....

Sometimes a thing comes along which you think will be one thing. But it's not quite. It's better.

 

So it was with four-singer two-musician musical After The Act at the Royal Court which I saw last night with Stuart in glitzy Sloane Square.

 

A musical about Clause / Section 28 - the homophobic legislation introduced by the Tory Government, you say?  Yup!

Clause 28, commonly referred to as Section 28, was introduced in the UK as part of the Local Government Act 1988. It was enacted on 24 May 1988 and prohibited local authorities from "promoting homosexuality" or teaching "the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship." This clause was later repealed in Scotland in 2000 and in the rest of the UK in 2003.

 

The musical a verbatim piece using real testimony from those who were there at the time and affected by the events; the parents, the local council staff, the kids, Maggie Thatcher, the BBC News studio where the lesbians invaded, the speeches in The House of Common and House of Lords where the lesbians abseiled down, the schools where teachers couldn't support LGBT children, the suicides and self-harm resulting from the terrible after-affects of that dreadful bit of anti-gay legislation.  Oh, and the fun. The strength, the compassion, and the community too. 

 

The music was good and helped tell the story.  The singing was good too.

 

When it started we were like oh, ok. This is a bit ‘stagey’.  But as the piece went on we got more and more drawn in. By the end of Act I we were raging.  By Act II in tears. By the end, we were cheering.

 

Go see.  It's great.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️