SAFE

Last night I saw a moving, funny and life enhancing production at Ray Rackham’s new Theatre near Monument. It was put together by Alexis Gregory and directed by Robert Chevara – a formidable talent. Alexis interviewed LGBT people made homeless because of their sexual orientation. Heartrending and yet uplifting because of the way they managed to deal with their situation. Four quite brilliant actors took on the roles and Alexis had arranged the material in such a fashion to bring out the emotion and comedy turning it into a piece of ensemble playing. We in London and in the Creative industries have no idea how gay young people are treated in the other parts of the country. Michael Fatogun played a young British Nigerian whose father wanted to send him back to Africa to learn how to be a real man. ‘Riley Carter Millington played a gay trans male ‘Jack’, transitioning from the gender he was assigned at birth’ . Kit Redstone acted the role of a young man who decided to be a woman and was trying to do it himself by taking pills advertised on the internet and Laura Jane Ayres played a lesbian who had become an alcoholic. All of these had suffered physical and mental abuse from their schoolmates and from their families. All had at one time become homeless and all took pleasure in ‘coming out’ to Alexis so that their stories could be told.