23:00, Wed 11th – Sat 14th November 2009 at ADC Theatre
Michaelmas Week 5

"Of course I...want to, but I don't want to want to."

CUADC presents the acclaimed play by Patrick Wilde ("Blondel", "You Couldn't Make It Up"), a teenage love story. It is 1992, Section 28 prohibits the "promotion" of homosexuality in schools, and the age of consent for gay men is twenty-one. Sixteen year old Steven Carter, who is just fine with being "dodgy", falls in love with John Westhead, head boy and popular sporty type. His love is returned until societal expectations force John back into "the closet". As Steven comes up against pressure at home and at school, Hutton, his teacher, longs to give him some support, but finds that the law is not on his side.

Wilde wrote the play to challenge the assertion that it's "easier to be gay now". It rails against the attitudes that keep Steven and John apart, and against certain aspects of the "gay scene". The issues that the play wrestles with are as applicable to 2009 as they are to the recent past and it remains a poignant, beautiful and honest tale.