By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ***

WHEN?: Saturday 24 May, runs through 14 June 2025 RUNTIME: 120 minutes (includes a 20 minute interval)

At 6pm on Monday 23 May 1988 4 lesbians protesting against Section 28 invaded a BBC studio as Sue Lawley and Nicholas Witchell started presenting the Six O’Clock News.

• Read on for reasons including how we wouldn’t recommend this as a musical but politically it’s a diverting watch

This is the memorable starting point for After the Act, an examination of the legislation which banned the promotion of homosexuality in schools.

A quartet of performers share the moment as Lawley gamely continues to announce the headlines as activists handcuffing themselves to her desk can be heard crying out ‘Stop Section 28!’ as her co-presenter Witchell, sits on a protester and places his hand over her mouth.

Section 28 was passed in parliament the following day with its proponents claiming it was intended to prevent local governments from using taxpayers’ money to teach children that homosexuality was as normal as heterosexuality as prime minister Margaret Thatcher famously condemned children being told ‘they have an inalienable right to be gay’.

Performers Ellice Stevens, especially good as the cool-as-a-cucumber Lawley, Ericka Posadas, Nkara Stephenson and Zachary Willis play multiple roles and remind of the troupe who masterminded the fabulous Operation Mincemeat, still running in the West End at the Fortune Theatre which was see on our 3rd visit next week.

When performers stress the importance of using verbatim accounts of events our heart always sinks a little because that might be why we read a newspaper but it’s never why we go to the theatre but here, perhaps, it’s more fitting for a play with music about a law eventually repealed in Scotland in 2000, and in England and Wales 3 years later.

The experience of growing up gay in the 80s at a time of media hysteria about HIV and AIDS is perhaps more subtly explored in new play Radiant Boy which we saw immediately before this and After The Act might have worked better if it had the strong musical numbers of Mincemeat.

It’s quartet of performers impress particularly as we are reminded of the after effects of a law which can still be felt today with an entire generation of LGBT+ people growing up feeling repressed in school.

We can see Eurovision commentator Graham Norton 2 rows behind us and we’re delighted this production and its important subject matter is finding its audience.

But we wouldn’t recommend it as a musical but if its subject matter interests you politically it’s a diverting watch.

• Main pictures via Facebook courtesy Royal Court Theatre Tickets
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