Lee Hall An opera company denies homophobia is at the heart of its decision to abandon a work by Billy Elliot writer Lee Hall. Opera North has cancelled community opera Beached, which featured a gay character and 400 school children in Bridlington, East Yorkshire. Hall had toned down some of the language from the opera, which tells the story of a single father trying and failing to have a quiet day at the beach. A school with 300 children involved in the performance asked him to go further and remove the lines: "Of course I'm queer/That's why I left here/So if you infer/That I prefer/A lad to a lass/And I'm working class/I'd have to concur." Hall refused. The local council's head of improvement and learning has told the BCC the school did not have a problem with a gay character or using drama to explore related issues, but it could not accept the language and tone of the passages. "Although the language was toned down, it was still deemed as unacceptable for four to 11-year-olds to be exposed to," the spokesman says. Hall says Opera North is in a difficult position but at the end of the day it's a very simple issue about discrimination. "It's about silencing gay people and wanting to wipe them out of being in this play," he says. Opera North says the school's withdrawal was only reason for cancelling the performance and it has nothing to do with homophobia.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Wednesday, 6th July 2011 - 11:34am