DETENTION

Northern Stage

★★★½

“touching and urgent”

Setting the stage with a deep abyss-like space looming behind a protest banner which stitches together protest messaging now richly associated with the 1980s LGBTQ+ rights movement, from the start, ‘Detention’ by Gary Clarke looks to be an urgent call to action which negotiates an eerily close then and now of queer liberation. What unravels is a dance-led retelling of haunting stories of working-class queer folks’ experiences fighting against, and ultimately living under, Section 28.

The piece is set to cerebral and heart-pounding soundscapes and voice overs which collide with the Narrator, played by Lewey Hellewell, who provides context, facts, and rallying cries to different sequences. The narration mostly provides a necessary emotional and informative thread between the chronology of events and the evocative stories the piece uncovers, but at times feels very on the nose. Largely projected words reading ‘Aids’, as well as various slurs and phrases, also lack subtly across mostly mesmerising choreographic episodes. These heavy-handed projected words take the audience out of the emotion and spoon-feed what they most likely can deduce from the intricate movement and staging of the overall performance. Film projections of a juddery and vexed Thatcher, played by El Perry, and a heart-to-heart from a teacher (Sarah Squires) afraid of what coming out at work might result in, work for much more thought-through audio-visual aids. More integration of film, multi-media, and historical materials like newspaper headlines, banners, and photographs, could make for a much rawer patchwork of theatre seeking to tell queer histories. This, coupled with Nia Wood, Chris Copland, and Keir Martin’s excellent execution of sound and lighting design, would make for a much more serious tone.

Though powerful and emotional messages of resistance and struggle cut through the noise, unfortunately ‘Detention’ somewhat faulters at delivering the urgence and importance of spotlighting the community it is voicing. The gorgeously designed blue costuming (by Hannah Boothman) of the House of Lords sequence, combined with electrifyingly slick choreography performed by Alexandra Bierlaire, Gavin Coward, Mayowa Ogunnaike, Alex Gosmere, and Imogen Wright, and underscored by Hellewell’s chilling delivery of anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric, highlights the real triumphs of what this piece can achieve. Furthermore, the almost teasing portrayal of demonised gay friendly children’s books also gave a fascinating angle to this part of Section 28’s harmful effects.

‘Detention’ does well to integrate LGBTQ+ Switchboard logbook stories into its narrative, carefully weaving the isolated, scared, and angry words of callers against a backdrop of tortured solo physical theatre. One drawback to these moments is the unwavering silence which each caller is met with, which perhaps draws a false message of inaction against vital listening and advice services. Further dialogue between or with call-handlers would provide a richer insight into the service’s history. It is also unfortunate that it seemed the only queer woman’s story represented through the Switchboard segments centred around motherhood and child custody. Enlightening further aspects of queer women’s struggles through Section 28, besides those relating to motherhood, would further enhance the show’s vision to tell an authentic story of a benchmark in queer British history.

Lastly, the inclusion of a local community cast affected by Section 28 in each place the piece is performed in is a beautiful aspect of ‘Detention’s’ mission. Community actors Steve Boodhun, Hedley Sugar-Wells, Tony Chapman-Wilson, Lindsay Nicholson, and Gary Short integrate brilliantly into the cast. The sincerity of stories and collaboration between the dancers and the community actors creates a touching and urgent driving home of the piece’s natural unifying message.

DETENTION

Northern Stage

Reviewed on 16th September 2025

by Molly Knox

Photography by Joe Armitage

Previously reviewed by Molly:

BECAUSE YOU NEVER ASKED | ★★★ | EDINBURGH FESTIVAL FRINGE | August 2025

CREEPY BOYS: SLUGS | ★★★★★ | EDINBURGH FESTIVAL FRINGE | August 2025

THE CITY FOR INCURABLE WOMEN | ★★★★ | EDINBURGH FESTIVAL FRINGE | August 2025

DOGS ON THE METRO | ★★★★★ | LIVE THEATRE | May 2025

HEAVEN | ★★★★ | TRAVERSE THEATRE | February 2025

PRESENT | ★★★★ | LIVE THEATRE | December 2024

GWYNETH GOES SKIING | ★★★★ | LIVE THEATRE | November 2024

ST MAUD | ★★★ | LIVE THEATRE | October 2024

DETENTION

★★★

“It was a genuinely mixed experience, and sometimes that is refreshing in its own way.”

Billed as a piece of ‘radically tender dance theatre’ Lay Down Your Burdens is a brave, if peculiar, piece of immersive theatre.

We are welcomed to a local pub, by friendly landlady (Sara Turner) where the three locals and the bartender consistently mask their respective pain by drinking, and dancing, and generally being merry. When they are joined by an American stranger (Donald Hutera) who is ripped open and vulnerable with grief, they begin to teach him a new way of looking at life. Interspersed with audience participation, immersive games and calls and responses, as well as stunning contemporary dance, this story unfolds as each character delves into their personal unhappiness.

Choreographer/director Rhiannon Faith devised this piece with the cast, and it has that muddled feeling that often plagues devised theatre. There is a lot going on, far too many characters, and the script is at times almost painful. However, where this piece soars is when it stays away from the strange plot that ties it down, and focusses on the abstract, on the audience participation and the dance.

Something that works astonishingly well is the sound design by Anna Clock. Anna is on stage paying cello, along with violinist India Shan Merrett, giving an ethereal live beauty to the performance. But Anna is also recording the audience responses, and at the end they layer them into a melting soundscape, adding meaning to the words and chants we’d shared. My favourite moment in the piece was where audience members were invited to share into a microphone the things they loved. It was moving and subtle and completely beautiful. To hear these back, layered with people’s responses to other prompts throughout the piece, was a stroke of immersive genius.

The dance was also extraordinary. Dominic Coffey, Shelley Eva Haden, Sam Ford and Finetta Sidgwick move across the stage in frantic, weird contortions. They represent pain, grief and struggle through their bodies but it is also lovely to see them dancing a jig in an early scene. All of them are very strong dancers, with captivating stage presences, but a standout is Haden who tells the story of a woman losing touch with her inner child through a beautiful series of gyrating agitated solos.

The set, by designer Noemi Daboczi is simple, a bar at the centre and booths behind, but it can be whatever the performers make it, and it feels eerily like a local pub.

This piece is hard to review, because some parts I hated, and some I loved. Every time I would get on board with the production, it would completely change into something else, often something that was baffling or tonally startling. I would see another production by Rhiannon Faith Company, but I cannot wholeheartedly recommend this one. I found the message confusing, and even at times problematic – there was a sense of toxic positivity and no questions around alcohol as a ticket to happiness. However, the idea of finding the joy in small things is beautiful, and important. It was a genuinely mixed experience, and sometimes that is refreshing in its own way.

DETENTION

Northern Stage

★★★½

“touching and urgent”

DETENTION

Northern Stage

Reviewed on 16th September 2025

by Molly Knox

Photography by Joe Armitage

Previously reviewed by Molly:

DETENTION

DETENTION

DETENTION

LAY DOWN YOUR BURDENS at the Barbican

★★★

“It was a genuinely mixed experience, and sometimes that is refreshing in its own way.”

LAY DOWN YOUR BURDENS at the Barbican

Reviewed on 22nd November 2023

by Auriol Reddaway

Photography by Foteini Christofilopoulou

More shows reviewed by Auriol:

Lay Down Your Burdens

Lay Down Your Burdens

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