Outlaws to In-laws

Part celebration, part social record, Outlaws to In-laws follows the struggles and joys of gay men from the partial legalisation of homosexuality in 1967 to the advent of equal marriage today

Through seven short plays, Outlaws to In-laws is a reminder of the need to cherish and celebrate the gains gay men have made and the work that community still needs to do to achieve true equality for all in the UK. Written by leading gay playwrights Philip Meeks, Jonathan Harvey, Jonathan Kemp, Patrick Wilde, Matt Harris, Topher Campbell and Joshua Val Martin, the plays explore love in all its forms: young, risky, secret – and even old-fashioned romance.

Happy and Glorious sees Dennis, a young man, fall in love for the first time as crowds celebrate the new queen’s coronation in 1953. Blackmail is at the heart of Mister Tuesday when Jimmy finds himself torn between his wife and child and his lover, Peter. Politics and race are flashpoints in Reward, in which a young black American finds love with a white skinhead. The fated Conservative Party Conference in Brighton is the setting for 1984, while Princess Die sees a fledging drag artist in crisis. Online versus real-life dating are debated in Brothas 2.0 and The Last Gay Play explores the new dilemmas of equal marriage.

The cast are Elliot Balchin (Macbeth, Judas Kiss), Michael Duke (Beautiful, Thriller Live), Jack Bence, Myles Devonté, Alex Marlow and James Richard Marshall. And the creative team is led by director Mary Franklin, Artistic Director and Co-Founder of Rough Haired Pointer (Christie in Love, The Young Visiters, Noonday Demons), with designs by PJ McEvoy, lighting by Olivier Award-nominated Tim Lutkin and sound by Joshua Robins.