The prejudice and discrimination faced by gay footballers is to be tackled by a Football Fans v Homophobia conference on Saturday.
The conference, uniting the Football v Homophobia Campaign and the FARE Network, will focus on the responsibility that fans and activists have for discouraging professional players to come out.
Chris Hoyle’s new play The Other Team carries on this discussion about gay footballers.
William Ash from Waterloo Road and ex-Hollyoaker Toby Sawyer will feature in this rehearsed read-through about a young man struggling to reconcile his love for his boyfriend with his desire to ‘make it’ as a footballer.
MM caught up with Chris ahead of the show.
Firstly, why have you chosen to only do the read-through at Manchester Pride, rather than bringing a complete finished play to the Pride Fringe?
It’s just the stage that we are at. It’s early days and I haven’t even heard it read aloud yet. The Manchester Pride Fringe festival seemed like a great platform to showcase the play. Manchester Pride have been very supportive and I’m really lucky to have a cast of extremely talented actors working on it at this stage. The event is now waiting list only and the interest in it has been amazing. Sharing your work at an early stage like this is exciting, but also a little terrifying.
The Football Fans v Homophobia conference is before your rehearsed reading. Would you recommend that anyone planning to see The Other Team should go to the conference? Will the play still make sense if people don’t?
The play is for everybody, not just for gays and not just for people that like football. Hopefully because of that, the play will help change attitudes about gay and lesbian players, whether they play for a community team or a Premiership team. I would recommend to anyone that is interested in the homophobia v football debate to go to the conference.
Do you know any gay footballers?
I know a couple of gay, amateur players, but I’ve been really lucky to get to know a wonderful Lady who is studying her PHD on gay amateur football, Louisa Jones. She has done extensive research in the field and has shared some anonymous case studies with me.
Do you think the absence of mixed gender football teams makes it more difficult to tackle homophobia in the game?
I think a female presence always makes situations a little easier, but that is never going to be the case within football. In the play there is a female character that doesn’t play for the team, but she is really important as mediator. Football has a massive injection of testosterone, so for it to embrace a gay player is a massive move forward. But, also, a really necessary forward move for society.
Does the issue of social class play a part in The Other Team? If it does, how do you think social class and attitudes towards homosexuality intersect?
I’m sure homophobia is still apparent in Polo teams just as much as it is in football teams. The Other Team features working class characters, but that’s just the story I wanted to tell. I don’t think class has anything to do with it. Homophobia exists in all walks of life.
Where are you planning to have the final version of The Other Team performed?
I’m working with a really great new writing theatre company on this called Box of Tricks. There are some plans, but I can’t really talk about them at the moment. The rehearsed reading is really about showing off what we have so far and seeing what reaction it gets. Hopefully in the future we will reach a wider audience. It’s by no means a serious play, but it does have a serious message. At the end of the day it’s just a story about a lad who is gay, and just loves playing football. Sorry world, but lads like that ARE out there!
The Other Team rehearsed-reading will be at John Thaw Theatre, Martin Harris Centre on August 21.
The Football Fans v Homophobia conference will be held at the Friends’ Meeting House, Mount Street, Manchester. You can register for the conference at: http://fansconference.eventbrite.co.uk/
For more on this story and many others, follow Mancunian Matters on Twitter and Facebook.
