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Celia Imrie and Michael Feast play Sybil Thorndike and John Gielgud |
50s England: Not a Gud time to be gay
PLAGUE OVER ENGLAND
Duchess Theatre
WELCOME to the dark, paranoid world of male homosexuality in the London of 1953.
Part of a parliamentary act in 1885 laid down severe penalties for gay men practising sex in public or in private.
In the Cold War hysteria of the 1950s it was pursued with vigour by a weak commissioner of police and relentlessly and enthusiastically by David Maxwell Fyfe, the Home Secretary.
They were determined that which brought Rome down would not succeed here. Men of all classes lived in constant fear. Suicides were quite common when they were threatened by police, blackmailers, religious zealots, or malicious informers. Nicholas de Jongh, the tough-minded drama critic of the Evening Standard, has etched out, as he says, a social landscape of the time. His starting point is the sensational arrest of the actor Sir John Gielgud, in a public toilet, by an agent provocateur in October 1953.
Disaster seemed about to strike. But, as de Jongh unfolds this tale, the incident was probably a major factor in the struggle for legal change. On the day of his arrest and appearance in court, an apprehensive Gielgud walked on stage at the Haymarket fearing a hostile reception.
In seconds he was greeted by thunderous applause, a public demonstration of the audience’s disapproval of the case against him.
Michael Feast has captured the character, not just the voice and mannerisms of Sir John, a wounded but vain man, who goes through the fire. It is an uncanny piece of acting.
Celia Imrie plays Sybil Thorndike and doubles up as a blousy Vera Dromgolle who runs a chintzy Soho bar for upmarket gay cruisers. Simon Dutton, among his other roles, is a High Court judge with a bad case of homophobia.
Tamara Honey has been with the play through its three stages of evolution, but it emerges as strong as ever – rich in insights and compulsive in content, and a sharp reminder to the indifferent that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance.
Booking until May 19 |
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