The award-winning writer Stephen M Hornby was recently made a Playwright in Residence at the PHM. And he’s using this residency to research and write a new play about the gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell. A rehearsed reading will premiere in February, as part of ‘OUTing the Past’, the national festival of LGBT+ history. It will focus mainly on the 1983 Bermondsey by-election, for which Tatchell was the Labour Party’s (ultimately unsuccessful) candidate. The campaign is infamous for the way it was reported on by the media, and for the abuse that Tatchell received. Following interviews with Tatchell and access to the party’s archives, Hornby will reveal the homophobia that was present in parts of Labour. Following the reading there will be a Q&A with Tatchell himself, facilitated by the activist and historian Paul Fairweather. The residency is part of PHM’s 2019 programme of activities that centres on the past, present and future of protest.
Sun 10 Feb, People’s History Museum, Left Bank, Spinningfields, Manchester, M3 3ER, Tel: 0161 838 9190, 3pm, FREE, phm.org.uk
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- Words:
- A. James Simpkin
- Published on:
- Sat 3 Nov 2018
