The main action takes part in an Edinburgh bar on the 40th Anniversary of the Stonewall riots with bar owner and activist Anthony Childs (Roger Burroughes) about to take possession of an award for his good work. However a special guest has been invi
ted who will uncover a dirty little secret from his past.
If the play had focused around this central hub and used it to cover the main theme of how far the LGBT world had travelled in the past 40 years then it would probably have been a strong, intelligent if didactic piece of theatre, but somewhere during the process of creating this show there appeared to have been a crisis of confidence and so the over-inclusion of musical numbers and underwritten lighter scenes were brought in which created a deeply disjointed feel to the evening.
The performances were equally uneven however some of that must be put down to first night nerves. Good work was done by Julie Edward and Kat Folan as Jem and Josie, the two lipstick lesbians who represented a victory of a kind, unburdened as they were by the battles of the past. Folan in particular is good in a role that could easily have slid into the territory of the unsympathetic but managed to remain charming.
Whilst some of the comedic moments were good and pointed up aspects of the hypocrisy and tensions hidden within the community they were all too brief and never felt as if they were part of the same play as the more dramatic and confrontational scenes.
The music, put in to create the atmosphere of a celebratory night at the bar, again never really felt like it belonged and interspersed as it was prevented any chance of the narrative to flow.
The central story is a good one and in the confrontation between Anthony and Laura (Nicole Dolder), his ghost from the past finally occurs and the tension created genuinely atmospheric theatre.
Using the personal to reflect the experience of the many allows the history lessons and politics to be digested more palatably. Had the production allowed this narrative to play out, it might have made it a more uncomfortable ride, but it also would have prompted more debate from the crowd on their journey home.
This is a play borne out of workshops and although that is not always a bad way to create theatre it does often lead to compromise. Here it appears to have diluted the strength of the original message and taken what was a perfect opportunity to address the still-relevant lessons of history, with both style and substance. Instead, the audience ended up being given too much of the former and no where near enough of the latter.
