Plague Over England

Plague Over England photos

Plague Over England description

21 October 1953. The recently knighted Sir John Gielgud, poised to return to the West End in a new play, is arrested in a public lavatory on charges of importuning for immoral purposes. As news of his conviction is splashed across the national press - at a time when judges, politicians and doctors were describing homosexuality in terms of a cancer, an epidemic and a threat to national life - Gielgud faces personal and professional ruin. Then something extraordinary happens.

More than just a dramatization of a scandalous event in one actor's life, this new play shows how Gielgud's arrest played a small but distinct part in the battle to make homosexuality legal.

Plague Over England captures the spirit of Britain in the early 1950s when judges, politicians and the national press were describing homosexuality as a cancer, an epidemic and a threat to national life. It is an extraordinary insight into the dramatic changes in social attitudes to gay life in the last fifty years.

Playing at Duchess Theatre

3-5 Catherine Street, London, WC2B 5LA GB (venue info)

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