Narc. Magazine Online
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Amy Mitchell immerses herself in a hard-hitting and authentic stage show at Northern Stage focusing on the Section 28 legislation of the 1980s
Image by Amy Mitchell
From its opening moments Detention combined energetic and frenetic dance with moments of quietness to produce a hard-hitting piece that is shockingly relevant today.
Detention is a dance theatre piece that forms the third part of a trilogy of works that includes Coal and Wasteland. All three pieces are tied together by 1980’s Britain and look at themes and issues that impacted our communities at a time when the Conservative Party was led by Margaret Thatcher, set amidst the decline of traditional industry in the region. Detention focuses on the Section 28 legislation brought into force in May 1988 which prohibited local authorities from ‘promoting homosexuality’ through teaching or publishing material, particularly forbidding the teaching of homosexuality as a ‘pretended family relationship’.
The production combines dance, narration, film sections and music to good effect, featuring a Community Cast of people who share their own lived experiences alongside the professional dancers, who are excellent. There are large group sections – a protest march and a classroom scene with students dancing on tables – which were the stand out moments for me, as well as more poignant and contemplative solo dance pieces. The music score included pounding atmospheric beats from Test Dept which kept the piece flowing and the energy high. A narrator joined the different sections together with commentary, including real life transcripts from Switchboard (the LGBT support line) bringing more real life experience into the piece. An excellent short film section featured Thatcher and there were moments of laughter and community amongst the pain and suffering. I particularly enjoyed the Jenny And Family section which shared a storybook which became the basis for some of the outraged rhetoric spouted by politicians, leading to a haunting dance duet with book burning.
Gary Clarke describes the piece as a call to action – both angry and urgent – that throws light on the impact that this controversial law had on LGBTQ+ individuals, families and communities over the course of the legislation, which was not repealed in England and Wales until 2003. As a teacher who started working in the early 2000’s I was aware of Section 28 and its impact in education in particular, and would have liked to see this explored more across the piece. There was an excellent Community Cast filmed section from a teacher and dance sections on homophobic bullying which showed how this law translated down into schools and classrooms, and the statistics shared at the end of the piece were shocking to read. So many themes, moments of history and stories were offered up during the production that we were unable to get a deep dive or connection into a particular aspect or story, but all in all Detention delivered a jam-packed, whistle-stop tour of the many ways in which a small piece of legislation can impact a community and increase marginalisation. An important and timely piece – a class act with quality and authenticity.
