Members of LGBTQ+ communities sought to join dance performance in Brighton, which will explore impact of Section 28
– 2 min read
Gary Clarke Company is looking for five local participants to appear on stage at Brighton Dome’s Corn Exchange alongside its professional cast on 14 October and 15 October.
DETENTION explores the impact of Section 28: a piece of largely hidden legislation from Thatcher’s Conservative Government in 1988, which ‘prohibited the promotion of homosexuality’, forcing people from the LGBTQ+ community into a place of secrecy, fear and shame at a time when the country was in industrial turmoil and the gay community was being ravaged by the onslaught of AIDS.
A free taster session will be held on 4 September in Brighton, led by Gary Clarke. This will give potential participants an introduction to the show and the chance to try out ideas. Applicants must be aged 40+ and willing to share memories of the Section 28 era.
Gary Clarke’s powerful and personal working-class storytelling draws on public and private stories and testimonies, including a rare insight into the LGBT+ Switchboard logbooks, combined with vivid choreography performed by a company of exceptional dancers, an evocative narrator, a local cast of LGBT+ people, striking designs in film, sound, light and costume and music tracks by the iconic band Test Dept.
Company Director Gary Clarke said: “DETENTION is the third and final part of a trilogy of dance theatre works following COAL and WASTELAND.
“What unites this trilogy is 1980s Britain, a time when our country was governed by Margaret Thatcher and how different marginalised communities fought for their human rights, their livelihoods and their existence.
“DETENTION explores a piece of largely hidden legislation from 1988, Section 28, which prohibited the ‘promotion’ of homosexuality, forcing LGBT+ people, no matter what age, class or profession, into a place of secrecy and shame. All this at a time when the country was in turmoil and the gay community was being ravaged by the onslaught of AIDS.
“I grew up during these times in a working-class town where LGBT + people were not really visible; and so did Lewey Hellewell, the narrator and the best friend I met when I was just 16. Today we are both openly gay and proud of our sexuality, but that has not always been the case. We are part of a generation that is now left filling in the gaps, trying to make sense of what happened and why and what the impact is on those of us who experienced it.
“Ultimately through DETENTION, the Company want to celebrate the progress we’ve made, honour the Pride we have fought for and acknowledge the incredible resilience we’ve developed along the way. DETENTION is our personal, political, urgent, angry and frightened call to action and to stand up for the rights of all marginalised and targeted communities – whoever and wherever they may be.”
To find out more or to register for the taster, visit Brighton Dome website.
Main Pic credit: Joe Armitage
