Content Note: Discussion of homophobia

It’s that time of the year, no not exams, Pride month: the month Cambridge colleges give us one day of flying the flag and the visibility that comes with it. Pinkwashing galore with colourless skittles and your fossil fuel company offering you a rainbow branded climate disaster. This Pride Month, let’s turn back time to the notoriously gay-friendly 1950s America (this is a joke) with the ADC late-show Lavender Beards written by Isabella Woolston, and co-directed by Miruna Tiberiu. On top of this wonderfully gay show, this Pride Month features four other shows that celebrate queerness in a range of ways! Get your 20% off when you buy tickets to two or more of these shows!

“As tensions rise, more wine is consumed, and Harold Homohater introduces a fun game of spot the gay”

David and Evelyn are a perfect heterosexual suburban couple down to the doilies and potpourri, apart from the little truth that he’s gay and she’s a lesbian and neither knows about the other. This is a recipe for a fun night when the presence of a government morality investigator (aka a professional gay hunter) is introduced to their perfectly normal dinner, of course with both gay lovers present. As tensions rise, more wine is consumed, and Harold Homohater introduces a fun game of spot the gay, and our two couples must scramble to put on a straight facade. Will they or won’t they succeed? You’ll have to watch and find out!

“[It] hopes to emphasise the ridiculous nature of these stereotypes that were used to control queer people”

Lavender Beards is a play that tackles a relatively unknown period of American history. Amidst the Red Scare brought on by Cold War tensions, the fear of the other manifested itself in the Lavender Scare, which ran parallel. Living in a pre-Stonewall world, queer people in America were persecuted for their ‘moral weakness’, forced to adopt double lives and discover their queerness in secret. This is the backdrop in which our characters find themselves. Whilst tackling this harsh reality, Lavender Beards hopes to emphasise the ridiculous nature of these stereotypes that were used to control queer people (limp wrist? liking Calamity Jane?). Fans of films that take a similar turn, like But I’m a Cheerleader, will find themselves laughing out loud at the homophobic caricatures created through Mr and Mrs Homohater (pronounced the French way of course). They will also see how, through the most bizarre times, hope and community can be found after all. Lavender Beards is a comedy with a capital C (and the C stands for Camp), Complete with handmade costumes by our designer Aimee Hallsworth, funky lights, and too many cheeky euphemisms to count!

The process of making this show was thoroughly enjoyable as our cast is lovely and the directors are quite cool too (if we do say so ourselves). Our rehearsal process has been just as fun and unhinged as the play. We’ve come together in the last two weeks, learning about Liza and Evelyn’s imagined lesbian commune in the 70s, working on Harold’s mannerisms (being played in drag by the wonderful Nadia Lines), and practising our interesting American accents (no one here is American).

Lavender Beards is showing at the ADC at 11pm from 15th-17th June