LGBT History Month announce The Adhesion of Love

LGBT History Month is thrilled to announce Inkbrew Productions “The Adhesion of Love” as the 2019 national heritage premiere for LGBT History Month. The play will be touring venues in Greater Manchester & Lancashire from  9 February to 31 May.

LGBT History Month Premieres New Play On How A Man From Bolton Met Queer Literary Hero Walt Whitman.

Inkbrew Productions is thrilled to present: The Adhesion of Love as the 2019 national heritage premiere for LGBT History Month. Touring venues in Lancashire, Manchester and Salford 9 February to 31 May.

Written by multi-award winning playwright Stephen M Hornby, The Adhesion of Love tells the extraordinary true story of how an architect’s assistant from Bolton crossed the Atlantic in 1891 to meet the visionary queer poet Walt

Whitman. The production builds on previous National Heritage Premiere successes: The Burnley Buggers Ball & Burnley’s Lesbian Liberator (2017); Mister Stokes: The Man-Woman of Manchester (2016); and A Very Victorian

Scandal (2015).

In 1885, John W Wallace, a working-class man from Bolton, sets up the Eagle Street ‘College’, a book group that celebrates his love for Walt Whitman’s poetry. Attracting a small group of like-minded men, Wallace embarks on a

journey of spiritual and sexual self-discovery through Whitman’s words. When Wallace arrives in America six years later and meets his literary hero face-to-face, he is forced to confront the true nature of the intimacy the college

members are seeking. On his return to Bolton, Wallace is unsure how to express his new sexual and spiritual awakening within in the conservative confines of Victorian England.

Stephen M Hornby, playwright in residence to LGBT History Month, Artistic Director of Inkbrew Productions and writer of The Adhesion of Love says: “Throughout the past lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans narratives have been ‘hetero-washed’ and omitted from official

accounts – I’ve lost count of the number of ‘spinsters’ and ‘ageing eligible bachelors’ there are in literary history! As an openly gay playwright with a keen interest in history, it’s my aim to queer the past and uncover what really went

on behind closed doors.

“Bolton’s connection with Walt Whitman, whilst surprising, is well documented and celebrated in Lancashire. But the true nature of the intimate meetings of men at the Eagle Street College has been kept hidden from view. The Adhesion

of Love attempts to reclaim ‘comradely love’ as what I believe it really was – men attempting to express their true desire for one another in a sexually repressive society

Matt Cain, writer of The Madonna of Bolton, patron of Bolton Pride and LGBT History Month, journalist and author says: “The Adhesion of Love is a gripping and fascinating play about a group of characters whose stories aren’t widely known

but very much ought to be. It’s vital that this play is performed in Bolton, the town in which it’s largely set, not just to reclaim the area’s LGBT past but also to make all parts of the UK more LGBT-inclusive places to live in the present.”

Professor Sue Sanders, Chair and founder of LGBT History Month UK says: “George Orwell said: ‘The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of

their history.’ I founded LGBT History Month as LGBT people in all their diversity were still invisible, especially in the past. Theatre is a crucial part of LGBT History Month and enables people to learn, through the heart as well as the

head. I’m thrilled that Stephen is back dramatising new and surprising LGBT history for our celebrations in 2019.”

2019 is also the bicentennial of Whitman’s birth and this full-length play offers an amazing new insight into his work and influence on the UK.

The Adhesion of Love is supported by Arts Council England, Superbia and LGBT History Month.

Tix are available at a number of locations across our region.Click below for the closest to you.

Published: 30-Jan-2019: (5244)