Marking the 50th anniversary of Homosexual Acts, the first official Gay theatre season in Britain, Radical Rediscovery: Homosexual Acts and Beyond opens at London Performance Studios from 7 November to 14 December 2025.
Curated by Dr Susan Croft, the exhibition will run Thursday to Sunday, 12–5pm, with free entry. A press and private view will be held on Wednesday 6 November.
The exhibition explores the early years of Lesbian and Gay theatre through posters, flyers, photos, magazines, props, set models, costumes, books, original footage and interviews with key participants.
It highlights the work of Gay Liberation Front activists, Gay Sweatshop’s touring productions, radical drag from Bloolips, and lesbian camp from Hard Corps and Parker & Klein. It also showcases the emergence of Black Lesbian, Gay and Queer work in the late 1980s.
Radical Rediscovery: Homosexual Acts and Beyond also examines the impact of Clause 28, censorship, and HIV/AIDS on theatre, while celebrating the companies and individuals who shaped the movement.
Dr Susan Croft says:
“50 years ago Ed Berman, founder of influential arts project Inter-Action agreed to host Britain’s first Gay theatre season at the Almost Free Theatre in Soho. The press came in droves because as Alan Wakeman, one of the producers and a founder of Gay Sweatshop said: ‘We were saying, ‘Yeah, we’re gay – so what? and having the audacity to put on plays about what life is like for gay people’. Runs were extended, moving to the Duke of Argyll pub and then the ICA and that first season was all plays by men but in 1976, Gay Sweatshop staged Jill Posener’s Any Woman Can, and toured this nationally. Julie Parker, who acted in it says: ‘People would come up …and talk to you afterwards… in tears… and say, ‘That’s me, that’s my story, that’s my life,’ and ‘I’ve never met people like you before.’ Julie went on to run The Drill Hall, a key London home for Lesbian and Gay performance.”
The exhibition also uncovers lesser-known stories such as Bradford’s The General Will, Brixton Faeries, and other groups like Hormone Imbalance, Character Ladies, and Consenting Adults in Public.
A linked symposium and series of readings will accompany the exhibition, including Maureen Duffy’s Rites and Martin Patrick’s first play at Oval House in 1987. Microgrants will support new works-in-progress inspired by these histories.
A symposium will take place on Friday 7 and Saturday 8 November, with staged readings and pop-up talks announced soon.
Listings and ticket information can be found here
