A GAY OLD TIME SHOW

COMMENTARY: Poster for the play opening next week and (below) the award-winning playwright

ONCE Before I Go is an intensely moving world premiere from award-winning playwright Phillip McMahon, co-creator of the iconic sensation RIOT and it kicks off next week at Dublin’s Gate Theatre.

This deeply moving portrait of three close queer friends over a period of 40 years in Dublin, Paris and London, offers an insightful look at living with humility, forgiveness and love.

Told against the backdrop of Dublin’s burgeoning gay rights movement of the 80s-90s and the contemporary LGBTQ+ community of today, the play charts the close friendship of Lynn, Daithí, and the luminous Bernard, and sits on the exhilarating edge between comedy, tragedy and melodrama.

Exploring the fragile yet resilient bonds of Irish queer lives across four decades in Dublin, London and Paris,

Once Before I Go steps between the early days of the AIDS crisis and today’s LGBTQ+ community, living in an era of marriage equality, gender self-determination, and untransmittable HIV.

At once political, joyous and heartbreaking, Once Before I Go honours the fabulous people we lost along the way, and celebrates those who fight on.

Writer Phillip McMahon said: “I’m thrilled to be returning to live theatre with this play that feels both personal and political.

“Once Before I Go looks at LGBTQ+ activism, love and friendships, and while it celebrates how far our community has come, it asks questions about all that was lost on the march towards progress.

“The play is very dear to me and it’s an honour to be premiering it at The Gate Theatre under the direction of Selina Cartmell. I like to think that the fabulous ghosts of The Gate’s founders Micheál Mac Liammóir and Hilton Edwards would be tickled by this play happening in their theatre.”

Booking

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, seats and cabaret tables of four are sold on a strictly unresered basis.

Any guests with specific access needs will have to contact the Box Office team in advance, as the cabaret tables are not suitable for wheelchair users.

Guests will also have to have proof of vaccination for performances from September 24 - October 21. Previews begin today and show tickets start from € 25.

AS EVERYBODY’S Talking About Jamie reaches our screens, rising stars Max Harwood and Lauren Patel tell Georgia Humphreys about their poignant roles.

If there’s one word to describe the musical Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, it’s “joyful”.

Inspired by true events, and set in a working- class English town, there’s now a new film based on the award- winning West End show which follows Jamie New, played by newcomer Max Harwood.

The teenage boy has a hidden dream: to be on the stage as a fierce and proud drag queen.

“I remember watching the West End show initially and seeing a queer, effeminate person as the lead role in the centre of the story, not being victimised and not dying at the end of the first act, and I was like, ‘ Wow, this is a story that’s centred on a queer person winning!’” recalls 24-yearold Harwood, who grew up in Basingstoke.

“It felt like something that I hadn’t seen a lot of. And being gay myself, this is a story that I want to tell.”

While Everybody’s Talking About Jamie has plenty of upbeat moments — catchy songs, a heart-warming dynamic between the youngster and his mum,

Margaret (Sarah Lancashire), and a funny, tender friendship with classmate Pritti ( Lauren Patel) — Harwood notes the film does “touch on some incredibly potent topics”.

Jamie faces plenty of adversity in his quest to make his debut stage performance; teachers are not encouraging about his aspirations, there are bullies at school, plus his own dad (Ralph Ineson) is struggling with being a supportive parent.

Creativity

But what really comes through whilst watching this colourful and moving feature — which also sees Richard E. Grant portraying a drag queen named Miss Loco Chanelle — is the theme of embracing who you are.

This is something Harwood reflects he has experienced himself while working on the project.

“This film has been a huge part of that process of me discovering who I am. When I moved to London and started working on this project, I got to work with three queer creatives, and work and meet so many more people, my universe expanded, because I was seeing and interacting with people that had lived experiences as queer people.”

He continues: “I’m so grateful to my team, who have not made me dampen my queerness. It’s been celebrated in this film in a way that’s not being like, ‘ Oh, aren’t you worried you’re going to get typecast?’, which is usually a question people ask.”

Harwood agrees the representation in the story is poignant for the times we are living in now.

The show has been such a big success, it’s now touring around the world, to places like Korea and LA, and there has been huge anticipation surrounding the adaptation.

Bolton- born Lauren Patel (20) says that is “because this story resonates with so many people and not just young people”.

“You think that it’s quite specific about this 16-year- old boy who wants to go to prom in a dress. But everybody has their version of a dress .”

Discussing the appeal of her character when she read the scripts, the young star notes how it is “unfortunately very rare” to see a role in musical theatre like Pritti, that is “specifically for a Middle Eastern, North African, South Asian girl”.

“But it was a real comfort to me that that existed, and so being able to translate that on- screen was indescribably amazing.

“It just feels like such a privilege,” Patel added.

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie is available to watch by streaming on Amazon Prime Video.