Plague Over England at Duchess from 11 Feb 2009

Plague Over England at Duchess from 11 Feb 2009

Plague Over England, by the Evening Standard theatre critic, Nicholas De Jongh, will open at the Duchess Theatre 16 Feb 2009, following previews from 11 Feb - booking to 16 May 2009.

Cast to be confirmed!

It is directed by Tamara Harvey, designed by Alex Marker, and produced by Bill Kenwright.

Based around the controversial 1953 conviction of Sir John Gielgud - for persistently importuning men for immoral purposes.

More than just a dramatisation 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. It 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.