The Day the World Came to Huddersfield – Lawrence Batley Cellar Theatre, Huddersfield

Writers: Stephen M. Hornby, AN Hynes, Peter Scott-Presland, Hayden Sugden

Lead Director: Helen Parry

Director: Olivia Schofield

As Dr Stephen M. Hornby, producer and one of the writers of this show, puts it in the programme, when he began this project in 2019, “there wasn’t a single picture any local organisation could show me of the 1981 march.” If, like most of us, you are puzzled as to what the march was and its lasting significance, it was the first Gay Pride march in this country outside London.

So why Huddersfield? John Addy had been running the Gemini Club in the town from the 1970s, at a time when gay-friendly and police-friendly were not incompatible. John claimed to have maintained co-operative relationships with the police until a new police chief arrived. From that point it was constant harassment. John’s struggles were picked up by the Gay Pride movement, hence the march in support. The result? Home Secretary Willie Whitelaw intervened and relations improved.

Inkbrew Productions have commemorated the march by commissioning four writers to create monologues for different characters who might have marched on that day, finally delivering them all in the Cellar Theatre of the Lawrence Batley Theatre. First up is John Addy (Simon Hallman) in a dynamic account of adventures and misadventures.

Monologues overlap to some extent, particularly at the over-protracted ending, but contrasts between the loud and raucous (and over-the-top, costume-wise) and the meekly normal are the rule of the day, notably when policewoman Moira (Sapphire Brewer-Marchant) and the wild Irish Dierbhile (Emily Spowage), meet up, first, out of uniform in London, then, to the horror of both of them, in Huddersfield.

All the monologists deliver their pieces with conviction and involve the audience successfully, though more concentration on the events of the march would have been welcome. An especially interesting appearance late in the day comes from Jude Leath as the “Macaroni” Harley who reveals a misfit History teacher beneath the frills and furbelows. The last word, suitably triumphant, is given to the Northern Irish Mark Ashton (Patrick Price).

Other commemorations include a photographic exhibition at the Lawrence Batley, rather mysteriously delayed until July 9-September 9, a week after the two performances of The Day the World Came to Huddersfield.

Reviewed on 3rd July 2022.