The UK’s first ever openly gay play comes to the King’s Head Theatre as part of their 2016 Queer Season. Colin Spencer’s Spitting Image is a witty and groundbreaking piece examining societies reaction when gay couple Gary and Tom concieve a child in sixties London.
Originally produced at the Hampstead Theatre Club in 1968, the play marked a radical sea change in British society. It was met with acclaim, transferring to the West End’s Duke of York Theatre, and moral outrage in equal measure. At the time, homosexuality had been decriminalised the previous year and the passing of the Theatres Act meant that for the first time since 1737, new plays were free from oppressive government censorship.
Artistic Director of the King’s Head Theatre, Adam Spreadbury-Maher says: ‘Spitting Image and I have been on an incredible journey this year. Considered too controversial for publication back in the sixties, I had to search high and low across London to unearth a copy of the script, eventually tracking it down to Oscar Lewenstein’s personal archive at the V&A museum. It soon became clear that Colin Spencer’s brilliant play was crying out for a revival and I’m absolutely delighted to present it to a whole new generation of theatregoers this August.’
This will be the second year that the King’s Head Theatre has programmed a season of queer work. The 2015 season was headlined by Joe DiPitreo’s F*cking Men, which enjoyed critical acclaim and three sell-out runs before transferring to the International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this year.
Spitting Image will be presented at the Kings Head Theatre from 2 – 27 August 2016.
