You might call it a choral history. Breach Theatre, however, styles its current production as a documentary musical.

Taking its titular inspiration from Before the Act, a 1988 benefit gala organised by lesbian theatre group 20^th Century Vixen, this 21st century afterword is based on verbatim accounts of those caught up in the moral panic which added fuel to the fire of that year’s Local Government Act. Infamously, its now-repealed Section 28 forbade what it disingenuously referred to as the ‘promotion’ of homosexuality in schools, specifically in relation to what it dismissed as ‘pretended’ family relationships.

If that sounds like rather unpalatable medicine for an audience to force down, the production’s compensatory toothsomeness lies in the lightness with which, without belittling the climate of homophobia the act both enshrined and fomented, it locates the sweet relief of humour amid the oppression of those sour times. Very much in keeping with that tonal judiciousness, the piece is a sustained wonder of directorial choreography, the twin elements under the respective aegises of Billy Barrett and Sung-Im Her barely distinguishable, lending the whole a gorgeous fluidity which extends to the score and the playing of its fine company.

This terpsichorean elegance is further evident in After the Act’s structure, so that while it moves from set piece to set piece, from the bold headlines made by a lesbian incursion onto the BBC’s evening news programme to the hate-filled speech which introduced the act to the House of Commons, the voices of the individuals who bore their impact are never drowned out.

Performed with less nuance, the inhabiting of other peoples’ words could flirt with the banality of lip-synching or bad karaoke, but each of the principles is excellent, slipping between a range of protagonists, performing all with what feels like fidelity.

Between them, they embody the plurality of the decade’s lived experiences, from the spark of recognition kindled by a television broadcast of other lives, far beyond the living room but abruptly thinkable, to the ticking backdrop of seemingly constant threat, whether it be from outing, beating, nuclear conflagration or the then-potent spectre of AIDS.

In applying such even-handedness to all but the most public of figures expressing voices raised against the homosexual community (the anxious and the uninformed, rather than the unashamedly hate-fuelled), After the Act offers the hand of empathy, declining to demonise in return but, with a courteous curtsey, offering them a place on the dance floor of understanding.

As a musical, the documentary is not ablaze with the kind of showstopping tunes liable to send an audience singing their hearts out as they wend their way home. As such, it’s possible to mischaracterise and undervalue composer Frew’s skilful and attentive score. An almost alchemical mirage to the left of the stage throughout the two hours of the performance, the music he conjures somehow balances providing an apt context for the shifts in the protagonists’ narratives with coalescing into choruses worthy of the 1980s time frame.

In keeping with the piece’s spirit, it would seem churlish not to indulge the intentional pun of the observation that it climaxes, in more ways than one, with the Manchester Stop The Clause march of February 20, 1988. As events – forgive me once more – come to a head, the vignette expertly pulls off the pirouette of the personal and the historical; from the anxiety of being seen by a mother as yet unsuspecting of one’s sexuality on the regional news to the euphoria of coming together en masse, to the opportunity to cop off in the safety of numbers.

Oddly, it feels like the final word should go to the police superintendent who, following the lesbian protest group’s arrest for abseiling the House of Lords, admiringly observed that “off the record, it’s probably the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen”.

On the record, this production isn’t far off.

By Desmond Bullen

All photos, including the main image, by Ali Wright

 

For more information about what’s on at Liverpool Playhouse, click here.

After the Act will be at HOME, Manchester from November 12 to 16, 2024. For more information, click here.