DV8: "To Be Straight With You"

We went to see DV8 Physical Theater at UCLA last night perform their latest multimedia production: To Be Straight With You.

It was amazing!

The Belfast Telegraph declares To Be Straight With You, “explores attitudes of tolerance and intolerance towards homosexuality, through culture and religion, in a fascinatingly multimedia approach.”

more info from Wikipedia

DV8 Physical Theatre was formed in 1986 by an independent collective of dancers who, they claim, had become frustrated and disillusioned with the preoccupation and direction of most dance. The company has produced 16 dance pieces, which have toured internationally, and 5 award-winning films for television. They are performing works that break down the barriers between dance, theatre, and personal politics and, above all, communicate ideas and feelings clearly and unpretentiously.
The company is led by Lloyd Newson and are based at Artsadmin in London.

stills from To Be Straight With You

A DVD available of some film versions of their work including Dead Dreams of Monochrome, Men, Strange fish, and Enter Achilles.

From the groups program notes:

In 2006, Channel 4 Television screened a documentary called Gay Muslims. The program interviewed 200 gay and lesbian Muslims living in Britain, and only one person out of the 200 was willing for their face to be shown on television. The resulting program therefore comprised mainly hand and feet close-ups. It is worrying that people living in a democratic country in the 21st Century are still frightened to be open about their sexuality because of potential reprisals within their own ethnic and religious communities.

We interviewed 85 people living in the UK: men and women, some who are both religious and gay, some who have given up on one for the other, members of the clergy, human rights organizations and people opposed to homosexuality due to their religious beliefs.

Many of our interviewees, particularly from ethnic minority groups with strong religious ties, requested that their identities remain hidden, fearful of the consequences should their communities discover their sexuality. Despite the great gains in the law to
protect gay people in this country, our interviews show how lesbians and gay men, if they choose to become visible, face intimidation or physical abuse. I hope that through this work audiences will become more aware of the lives of many people hidden under
the veneer of a liberal and supposedly tolerant society.