Margaret Thatcher’s Section 28 sought to silence the LGBTQ+ community and ‘prohibit the promotion of homosexuality by local authorities’.
The musical After the Act, which performed at HOME last week, takes you through the subsequent fallout of this legislation and how it shaped society in both the past and modern day.
Written and directed by Billy Barrett, the four-person cast – Ellice Stevens, Nkara Stephenson, Ericka Posadas and Zachary Willis – portrayed characters from varying backgrounds of gender, class, race, and their experiences of living in a Section 28 society.
It is described as a musical about ‘pride and passion’, and this certainly shone through all of the songs that took the audience through protests, debates and flashbacks.
The audience is guided through the lives of campaigners, teachers and schoolchildren, and are told gripping accounts of their struggles tied with Section 28.
These mini plotlines knit together effectively to highlight the damaging nature of Thatcher’s legislation and demonstrate it didn’t simply suppress the LGBTQ+ community in schools but in wider society too.
The choice of set design epitomises this with its use of school PE equipment as props for multiple scenarios.
In protests, parliamentary debates and more, the school equipment is used to help visualise the scene but spotlights that even though Section 28 was painted as a law aimed at schools, its position and impact in society went much further than classrooms.
All four cast members showed tremendous chemistry and delivered a performance that pushed a striking message, but it was refreshing to see the musical’s composer, Frew, perform on stage with the cast.
With the music carrying the passionate message of courage and resilience, I applaud the decision to have the composer on stage and visible to the audience – to emphasise the importance of the message the songs carried.
Featured image credit: HOME
