Tue 4 - Sat 8 October 2022 at 7.30pm
The Playhouse Theatre, Clare Street, Northampton NN1 3JA

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Looking back, moving forward…

What happened in that room?.. The living room of a Victorian terraced house in Northampton?
What has it seen over the last 90 years? What stories do the bricks and mortar hold?...

An evening of two new one act plays to help us mark Masque Theatre's 90th birthday.

We invited local writers to submit new plays. Set anywhere from 1930 to the present day, they could happen over a couple of decades and describe the changes within that time or just be one moment of time. These are two of the winning plays.

Tayla previews her play, which she is also directing…

"It's hard for most women, let alone women like us."

Do you need someone to talk to?

Perhaps you are a teenager with a secret.

Perhaps you are a housewife who has had a sexual revelation.

Perhaps you desire what you daren't.

Perhaps you're living two lives.

Perhaps you can't but - won't, why -

Or, maybe you just want to know where you can find a decent bar for a great night out.

At the end of Liz and Trish's phone lines in Lesbian Line is an interweaving triptych of stories from the mouths of women across ages through their joy, their fear, and their silence.

This is a married woman, a young competitive swimmer, and a flirt. This is Sarah, Viv and Paula's stories out of hundreds, thousands, and more.

I was raised in Northampton, but throughout my degree in Creative Writing and English Literature at the University of Warwick, I have written in a multitude of forms - all through which I have explored themes of nature, gender, sexuality and desire.

At the core, authenticity and sensitivity has always been at the forefront of my intentions as a writer. So naturally, when approaching Lesbian Line, I wanted it to be as authentic as it could be.

I sat down with Stevie Lishman, a past volunteer of the Northampton Lesbian Line. We spoke over an ice cream at Abington Park and she told me about how she combatted homophobia by working with the Police and others for more inclusive language and safe spaces. She talked about how Section 28 brought the whole community together and out onto the streets, and told me about her long lasting friendship with other volunteers at Lesbian Line. She reminisced about the laughs she had locally at bars and events.

I'm extremely grateful for my writing and directing debut with Masque and for this opportunity to bring a snippet of the history of Northampton's Lesbian Line to life: the ways it supported and continues to support people through moments where it feels safer to be silent.

I also wrote this from a place that knows what that feels like. This knowing naturally made me seek out those who were there, who listened, who spoke out when it was most brave to, it is why I write this, why Sarah, Viv, Paula, Liz and Trish speaks this here about the now, at this time, of that time-

Hello?
Are you still there?

Masque Theatre's production is directed by Tayla Halfacre

In these days of "wokery", it was very brave of Masque to stage two new plays which deal with sexual identity because by even talking about it, you enter a minefield where one false move risks getting your leg blown off! So while things could easily have gone wrong, on the whole the reverse was true.

Lesbian Line by Tavla Halfacre is what it says: a telephone help-line for lesbians to phone who feel they need to gain a sympathetic ear.

We hear mainly two stories: one from 16-year-old Viv (played sympathetically by Ella Drake) and the other from a married Sarah (played with confidence by Lisa Smallwood).

The play was well constructed, keeping the audience interest through the telling of these stories, but also allowing us to gain some insight into the lives of the other three characters. Tayla was concerned to show us that a group of lesbians are at heart, just the same as any other group of women.

Some are confident and brash, some are thoughtful, some shy and some empty headed. And in this she succeeded.

I did hear audience comments that the play was very static - the characters themselves hardly moved - so it would perhaps have been more suited for the radio.

And as a rookie director, there are other lessons that Tayla could take on board, lessons which come about through experience. For example, making sure that the characters can be heard at the back of the theatre, getting characters to pick up cues quickly and not being seduced into thinking that the audience won't notice when one of the characters is reading from her script rather than having learned her lines.

But on the whole Lesbian Line was an enjoyable and thought-provoking experience.

A whistle-stop tour of Masque Theatre's history in nine monologues

Masque Theatre's production is directed by Beverley Webster who has previously directed The Hunting of the Snark (2021), Love's Labours Lost (2019), Playhouse Creatures (2017)

As an enteract entertainment, 90 Years of Monologues devised by Beverley Webster and performed by experienced Masque members, Kelly Bradley, April Pardoe and Sue Whyte was a delight.

It showed just how versatile they are and what fun performing can be, an enjoyment which was shared by the audience.

And having seen Richard III at Stratford only a couple of days before, I can say quite categorically that Sue Whyte made a far better job of Queen Margaret than the RSC actress.

1992. Reg Timson is a drag artiste who used to be a huge star in the 1960s.

That was until his alcohol addiction reduced him to an unreliable, feckless parody who now only get booked to perform in sleazy fringe venues.

Eric Slinn is a journalism student who, after much persuasion, has got Reg to agree to an interview about his fall from grace.

This interview will take place in Reg’s house. But Eric has another agenda. He knows a dark secret about Reg.

His real purpose is to make Reg admit to the mistakes of his past and perhaps make his future a lot more hopeful in the process.

Masque Theatre's production is directed by Maggie Holland, whose shows for the group include Treasure Island (2019), Woman In Mind (2018), Entertaining Angels (2013) and Closer (2009).

In many ways, The Middle of Nowhere by Steve Dimmer was for me the most enjoyable part of the evening - but it was also the one that caused me the most difficulties.

The play is inspired by the real-life performer Rex Jameson and his comic creation, Mrs Shufflewick, who I dimly remember from television as a child.

Steve's character, Reg (whose comic character is Ada Baqwash) is being interviewed by a so-called reporter, Eric, who turns out to be his child.

During the play we learn about the discrimination Reg faced early in his career as a married gay man and when it is eventually revealed that Eric is transgender and was born a girl, we are told of the parallel prejudice and abuse that s/he experienced in modern times.

This was an interesting idea and I was sorry that it was not explored in more depth, but I understand from talking to the director, that Steve intends to develop it when he writes a full-length version of the play.

And yet, in the popular imagination, the stereotype persists of the limp-wristed effeminate homosexual, exemplified by performers such as Larry Grayson and John Inman.

Only a few months ago I was asked half-jokingly by a business colleague whether as a gay man I liked wearing women's clothes! Of course, I laughed and answered him in Anglo Saxon but it shows that the stereotype is still there, simmering below the surface.

In Lesbian Line, Tayla Halfacre's aim was to explode the myth that every lesbian is a "raging dyke" but despite the strengths of The Middle of Nowhere, I felt that Steve Dimmer's character of Reg was contributing to the myth that every gay man is a raging queen.

There is no doubt that Steve knows how to write. The play was well constructed with sharp, witty dialogue and the dramatic tension was held until Eric's revelation at the end.

The two performers, David Deegan (Reg) and Daniel Burrows (Eric) were also very skilled. They were confident and assured, holding the stage well and the play was aided in its presentation by the experienced hand of Maggie Holland as director.

But where I found the most difficulty was in the actual creation of the character of Reg. For over 70 years now, both in Britain and America, the theatre has regularly presented serious dramas about the problems faced by gay men (less so about lesbians). And by and large they have shown gay men to be in every respect but one, just like other men.

Ian Spiby is the author of The Trouble with Queers: Gays in Plays, 1945 to 1968. Published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. He is also a member of Masque Theatre.