Writer: Sam Chittenden
Director: Katie Turner-Halliday
Within living memory pageants were one of the most popular of community activities. Starting in the early years of the 20th century, but stretching on to the 1960s, communities came together under the command of a pageant master to produce grandiose events that enacted scenes from the area’s history. Numbers were prodigious: a 1931 pageant in Peel Park, Bradford, boasted no fewer than 7,500 performers!
All this was under the command of a pageant master, often somewhat eccentric, certainly so in the case of Gwen Lally. Originally an actress, she reckoned to have appeared on stage only once in a dress before moving into production, adjudication and – above all – pageants. There is, of course, no doubt now of the sexuality of the fiercely domineering woman who regularly dressed as a man, even in top hat and tails.
It would have been fascinating to explore Lally’s techniques, but in In Plain Sight Heifer Productions confined themselves to presenting her as “part of an important LGBTQIA+ heritage which has largely been forgotten” – that is certainly true, though one might suggest that it’s the pageant tradition that has been forgotten rather than Lally. In her lifetime she was sufficiently respected to receive the O.B.E.
In Plain Sight began on a grassy bank outside Bradford Cathedral. Lally’s partner Mabel (Juliet Daalder) was coaching a young pageanteer while Becca Morris corralled the audience as a splendidly bluff Yorkshire Robert. Then Nicole Evans emerged as Gwen Lally, imperious in the extreme, and bullied the young aspirant to the point of tears. This was our introduction – and shortly Robert directed us to the De Lacy Room where we would find Lally at work.
The main part of the play (30-plus minutes) was skilfully written by Sam Chittenden and neatly directed by Katie Turner-Halliday without actually having the teeth one hoped for. Juliet Daalder, by now well over the top as a Critic, beating out the rhythm with his/her stick, argued with Lally about the quality (and the strangeness) of her work; the excellent Becca Morris now appeared as Lally’s Scots wardrobe mistress and Daalder returned as Mabel to debate the wisdom of living her life in plain sight. Evans was perfect as Lally, gradually clothing herself in male attire and projecting a steely determination to achieve.
Finally it was outside again for the pageant – and what could at best be called a problematic finish. Five youngsters dressed as suffragettes got audience members to pelt a window with potatoes, then sprinted around, picking up new banners, shouting LGBTQIA+ slogans and racing through the audience with rainbow flags. Finally they were joined by the cast members and other adults in a wild sort-of-dance. To be honest, after the sober half-hour preceding and through no fault of the youngsters, it was a mess – and one felt that the director might have realised that audience members who take a sympathetic interest in the gay community do not necessarily wish to be absorbed into it.
Reviewed on 20th August 2022.
