Section 28 was a piece of legislation that came into place in the UK in 1988 prohibiting local authorities from promoting homosexuality. It sparked waves of protest from the LGBT+ community at the time, as well as demonisation, hate crimes and misinformation from supporters of the clause. Coming at a time when the AIDS crisis was a devastating worldwide presence, it’s easy to forget how terrifying this was for so many. Breach Theatre’s After the Act is a musical that uses the testimonies of real people to paint a visceral, personal picture of that experience.
Thatcher’s political landscape made the eighties a bleak time for many and that atmosphere is ominously recreated here as we’re thrust into the internal turmoil of people living through that time.. We’re shown a sex education class where the ignorance of the homosexual experience is ludicrously clear. There’s great camped-up humour in the depiction of clueless authority figures, poignant alongside the negative effect they’re having on the teenagers questioning their sexuality. We see the moral panic caused by the book “Jenny Lives with Martin and Eric”. This Danish book about a girl who lives with her father and his boyfriend was one of the catalysts for Section 28. A parodied misinterpretation of the message of the book is followed by the outrage that sparked a movement of homophobic sentiment.
There are scenes of the House of Lords projected on the back of the stage as a character describes the disgusting insults coming from both Labour and Conservative politicians. Throughout the piece there is a sense of authenticity, the lives of real people portrayed against a background of often shocking historical context. Perhaps most shocking are the parts that show the hostility faced by children at school: the bullying, the self-harm, the suicide attempts. The impact that the AIDS crisis had on the public perception of homosexuality is really brought into focus here, as is the way in which Thatcher’s Section 28 compounded this.
But there’s also much to be inspired by. The sense of community found on protests, a compassionate school nurse, the mere fact that we’re living in a world where AIDS is treatable and the clause has been repealed. It’s a keen reminder of what so many people in the community had to suffer. And though it feels slightly bittersweet laughing at a camped-up Maggie Thatcher in a sequin dress in the week that Trump has returned to office, it’s a valuable and moving history lesson.
The music composed by Frew takes many influences from 80s synth pop. They perform the accompaniment as a one-person band switching between guitars and keyboards against New Order-like drum beats. The musical often doesn’t take the form of songs so much as extended half-sung, half-spoken testimonies. Sometimes it can feel like there are a lot of words being squashed into the rhythms, and that can sound clunky, but there’s a pervasive, impassioned urgency to it which will leave you feeling energised and galvanised.
After the Act at Brighton Corn Exchange 8th-9th November
