Ellice Stevens and Billy Barrett

WHAT would those in government who used their powers to come up with fear-spreading “Section 28” legislation make of the posters up at the New Diorama Theatre?

Upcoming play After The Act exposes the harm done by a policy forbidding local authorities from “promoting homosexuality” from 1988 to 2003, using interviews with teachers, students and activists who were in schools during this era.

And not only are the local councils in north London fully supportive of events like LGBT+ History Month now and have delegations in the annual Pride march, co-writers Ellice Stevens and Billy Barrett are going further and staging a musical on Section 28.

The heads of anybody who composed this hated law must be exploding.

“A play about a piece of legislation doesn’t sound fun, but a big queer musical does,” said Mr Barrett. “It’s a Trojan horse – a fun musical exploring something serious.”

Ms Stevens added:“Section 28 instilled this fear, this fear of being who you are. It prevented people from starting to learn things about themselves, or looking for reassurance from someone,” she said.

“From the people we’ve been talking to about it, it took away their ability to have a confident adolescence where they felt safe and comfortable being who they are. It just really created this feeling of fear and shame that I think has taken quite a lot of time to unpick.”

The two began working on the musical about a year ago, but have been creative partners since 2015. During their research for the play, the two spoke to teachers currently working in schools, and while things have improved, fear of parental backlash to discussing LGBT+ issues is prevalent.

“It feels like schools are still really scared about it as a subject,” said Ms Stevens, who is also starring in the play as a gay teacher who can’t come out for fear of the professional repercussions.

“I’ve spoken to teachers who run LGBTQ+ groups today, and they’re put under a scrutiny that other groups aren’t.”

The two see the play as an opportunity for activism.

“What we really hope is that audiences come away not just educated about a very particular issue, but moved on a human level by the stories that they’ve heard,” said Mr Barrett.

“We felt compelled to make After the Act because a lot of the public debates [about gay people] at that time feel like they’re being rerun now around trans rights. If you’ve read or heard a lot of the stuff from then, it’s uncanny how much is being repeated now.”

He added: “We felt like we could use the anniversaries of 20 years since the repeal of Section 28 and 35 years since it was implemented as an excuse to shed light on what’s happening now.

After The Act opens on February 28.