A new drama set in New York 1969 on the eve of the Stonewall riots.
Written by Jon Bradfield and Martin Hooper
Directed by Tricia Thorns
New play A Hard Rain made its world premiere last night at Above the Stag.
Taking its name from the Bob Dylan protest song A Hard Rain takes a hard look at what happens when people at the margins of ‘acceptable’ society are pushed to their limits by the authorities.
“Ruby” is kicked out of the military after a year in Vietnam. With no prospects, he winds up as a drag queen in a mafia-run gay bar, and there he meets the street kid who will change his world. Set in a mafia-run bar greased with smart-talking queers, bribe-happy cops and nervous Wall Street high-flyers, this is play about what happens when you push things underground.
Opening in LGBT History Month it provides a snapshot into the lives of the people running and frequenting a ‘hidden’ gay bar in New York just before the Stonewall riots in 1969 – a time when homophobic laws meant people were pushed underground or forced to live double lives with often tragic consequences. And yet, as unlikely friendships and impossible relationships form and are broken, human decency also endures together with the humour which triumphs over adversity.
