Despite having heard incredible things about Jamie Lloyd’s production of The Pride, as I took my seat for the preshow discussion on the evening of the Stonewall Gala, I had yet to actually see the play. About a complex love triangle, The Pride delves into the attitudes towards homosexuality in both 1958 and the present day. The play is in the middle of its run at Trafalgar Studios as part of Jamie Lloyd’s season Trafalgar Transformed which has so far also seen critically acclaimed productions of Macbeth and The Hothouse. If the talk made anything instantly clear, it was that The Pride is a piece to which there is a great deal of passion and meaning attached.
The Pride's cast and creative team during rehearsals
The panel for the discussion was made up of Alexi Kaye-Campbell (playwright), Will Young, Layton Williams and comedienne Suzi Ruffell. The main angle of the discussion was directed towards how homophobic bullying could be tackled within our schools. Each guest was given the opportunity to share their own, often moving stories which brought a lovely touch of sentimentality and reality to the event.
Layton Williams was on the panel representing the Stonewall Ambassadors who are currently travelling around various schools to deliver talks to students hoping to combat homophobic bullying from a young age. As he shared various anecdotes from his visits, from the positive to the downright cringe-worthy, it became clear the work these Ambassadors are doing really is crucial to the aim of Stonewall. His beaming smile as he shared the successful stories of his visits showed that good things are starting to happen.
It was very refreshing for an event discussing such a worrying issue affecting young people in today’s society to have such a positive spin. The evening was very much focussed upon the attitude of ‘we have already achieved this – what next?’ rather than the negative angle I was admittedly expecting.
The talk was a wonderful introduction to the performance of a play which is definitely as good as word of mouth has made it out to be. I was truly moved by the piece and the talk beforehand added an extra texture to the piece and brought it even closer to fellow audience members who had also attended the talk beforehand. A special mention must go to Alasdair Buchan who was on in place of Matthew Horne – he delivered a performance to the same exceptional standard as his co-stars: Hayley Atwell, Harry Hadden-Paton and Al Weaver.
The Pride runs at Trafalgar Studios until 9th November 2013.
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Photo Credit 1: Marc Brenner
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