Gary Clarke Company - Detention

GARY CLARKE COMPANY proudly presents its highly anticipated new dance theatre show, DETENTION, following the multi award-winning COAL and critically acclaimed WASTELAND.

DETENTION explores the impact of SECTION 28: a piece of largely hidden legislation from Margaret Thatcher's Conservative Government in 1988, which 'prohibited the promotion of homosexuality', forcing people from the LGBT+ community into a place of secrecy, fear and shame at a time when the country was in industrial turmoil and the gay community was being ravaged by the onslaught of AIDS.

Gary Clarke's powerful and personal working-class storytelling draws on public and private stories and testimonies, including a rare insight into the LGBT+ Switchboard Logbooks, combined with vivid choreography performed by a company of exceptional dancers, an evocative narrator, a local cast of LGBT+ people, striking designs in film, sound, light and costume and music tracks by the iconic band TEST DEPT. DETENTION is a bold and moving exploration of the violence, loneliness, protests, debates, unlikely allies and the remarkable individuals and organisations of the time.

Photography Joe Armitage (Boneshaker Photography)

Graphic Design Jo Briggs

DETENTION is produced by: GARY CLARKE COMPANY LTD

Co-commissioned by: Nottingham Playhouse, Grand Theatre Blackpool, Lawrence Batley Theatre, Cast, The Place,  

Midlands co-presenter: FABRIC 

Gary Clarke Company is supported using public funding through Arts Council England and core funding from John Ellerman Foundation.

The national LGBTQIA+ support line.  If you need to discuss any of the themes raised in the show the support line is available from 10am to 10pm everyday on 0800 0119 100.