An award-winning play about boxing is also providing theatre-goers with an unconventional love story.We discover more about the touring production which is heading toWales
IN the macho world of sport, Wales has led the way when it comes to LBGT issues, with Nigel Owens being the first professional rugby referee to come out as gay and Gareth Thomas the first rugby player to do the same thing.
Now a touring play exploring the same topic in possibly the most macho sport of them all - boxing - is visiting Wales fresh from receiving two nominations for the Manchester Theatre Awards for Best New Play and Best Fringe Production.
Gypsy Queen is the story of ‘Gorgeous’ George O’Connell: traveller, bare-knuckle fighter, hero to his people and Gypsy King. George leaves this life behind and enters the world of professional boxing, which puts him on a collision course with his roots, his identity and his greatest fear.
In the opposite corner, gay boxer Dane ‘The Pain’ Samson, the young pretender and son of a boxing legend. But Dane is fighting his own battles and they will ultimately lead to a tragedy that neither man could predict.
Gypsy Queen is an unconventional love story between two fighters who discover the greatest challenge lies outside the ring.
Gypsy Queen is written by and stars the award-winning co-writer of Away From Home, Rob Ward.
Throughout 2017 the show toured the UK, including a month’s run at the Edinburgh Festival (Assembly Rooms), a three-week run at London’s King’s Head Theatre and culminated in a week’s run at Manchester’s Hope Mill Theatre.
Professional boxing has suffered a series of knocks on LGBT inclusion over the past 18 months, from the debate surrounding whether Tyson Fury’s comments should have seen him taken off the 2015 BBC Sports Personality Of The Year shortlist, to Manny ‘Pac Man’ Pacquaio (former boxer, now politician in the Philippines) comparing homosexuality with bestiality. Most recently Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather used the slur ‘faggot’ frequently when attacking his rival Connor MacGregor.
The subject of LGBTQ visibility and inclusivity in sport is always a hot topic for Wirral-born actor and writer Ward whose previous award winning one-man show Away From Home, co-written with Martin Jameson, was about the life of a rent boy in a relationship with a Premier League footballer. The show toured nationally and internationally between 2013 and 2016 and received two Manchester Theatre Awards (Best New Play and Best Fringe Performance).
Ward told Hiskind magazine: “The idea of homophobia in sport has risen in prominence as an issue in the past five years. It’s been propelled by some high profile sports people coming out, such as Gareth Thomas and Tom Daley.
“The play (Gypsy Queen) was initially in response in part to comments made by Tyson Fury; since then, there’s been some terrible homophobic remarks made by Manny Pacquiao too. Even this summer while we were in Edinburgh during the run up to the Colin McGregor and Mayweather fight, Mayweather was on the microphone calling him a faggot.
“The crux of it comes down to this old-fashioned idea of what it is to be a man. That’s what I think keeps that culture of homophobia alive in sports. I think there really needs to be a challenge to the notion that it is still possible to be a gay and a ‘macho’ sportsman.
“But there are some small steps forwards being made. Orlando Cruz became the first openly gay world boxing champion. I watched an interview with the Mancunian boxer who he fought earlier this year and he basically said ‘I don’t even have a problem with it. My brother’s gay.’ It doesn’t sound like much, but slowly but surely there’s little tiny steps being made.”
Starring alongside Ward in multirole two-hander Gypsy Queen is actor John Askew who is joining Gypsy Queen following a successful UK tour of the Richard Bean play Harvest with New Perspectives Theatre Company.
Hope Theatre Company is a Manchester-based theatre company specialising in LGBT work and was founded by Adam Zane, director of Gypsy Queen.
■ Gypsy Queen will open its Welsh tour in Ystradynglais tonight before visiting Maesteg Town Hall on May 20; Ffwrnes, Llanelli, on May 21; Torch Theatre, Milford Haven, on May 23; and Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, on May 24 and 25