Safe

Alexis Gregory

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781786823380
• eBook ISBN: 9781786823397
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Social Sciences

A recent study found that 25% of UK homeless and at-risk young people identify as LGBT. Safe is a powerful verbatim theatre piece exploring some of these untold stories via the Albert Kennedy Trust: a charity supporting such youth.

Different young people talk about their experiences growing up: of being misunderstood or abused by parents, siblings and carers; of living in shame and fear. These are tales of sexuality, gender, childhood, identity, family, religion, race, addiction, and an exploration of what it means to feel truly safe in today's world, and a humour-filled celebration of survival.

Safe was created out of interviews with service users at the Albert Kennedy Trust, and was first performed at the Soho Theatre in 2015. Despite the difficulties encountered by the play's characters it has an inspiring and hopeful conclusion, and "demonstrates the power and versatility of verbatim theatre". (The Stage)

As the audience enter the space, music is playing; loud, really loud.

‘Blind’ by Hercules and Love Affair.

‘Faggot’ by Meshell Ndegeocello.

‘After the Love’ by Boy George.

‘Fistful of Love’ by Antony and the Johnsons.

THE SINGER steps into the empty space and performs an acoustic version of ‘Small Town Boy’ by Bronksi Beat.

Just ahead of the song finishing, JACK, TAMI, SAMUEL and ALICIA enter and each take a seat, for now. They are in the interview room to be interviewed for ‘Safe’. They face out and introduce themselves to the audience and the now non-existent interviewer.

JACK Jack.

TAMI TAMI.

SAMUEL Samuel.

ALICIA Alicia.

JACK At what point do you want me to start talking? I’m quite excited. Everybody likes answering questions about themselves!

SAMUEL I’ve shared my story a lot. It isn’t a decision I’ve made. I’m an opportunist. I take whatever comes my way.

ALICIA There was a time when I couldn’t even talk to myself about my story.

JACK I’m going to be really honest though.

ALICIA Now I’m like ‘go on, liberate yourself’.

SAMUEL Is that what you’re going to record us on? An iPhone? It’s just that I thought your equipment would be a bit more…professional.

TAMI I’d like to be heard and understood. What do you want to know? I’ll tell you everything.

JACK Obviously, I was born female. It was early on that I noticed that that wasn’t right. I was probably about four and I was completely convinced that there had been a mistake and I was going to grow the appropriate body parts and grow up to become a boy and things would change and everything would become right. And then that didn’t happen.

SAMUEL I was brought up in Nigeria. I came here when I was eighteen. In school I knew I was a bit different, I was attracted to guys. I didn’t know the ‘gay’ word or what homosexual meant. I thought I was the only person attracted to guys.

TAMI Iidentified as a gay boy, but more as a feminine gay boy.

ALICIA I was five when I kissed my best friend at school. The older girls saw and from that age I was called names based on that. Words like –

ACTOR 2 (Jumping up out of seat.) ‘Lesbian!’

ALICIA – and –

ACTOR 3 (Jumping up out of seat.) ‘Dyke!’

ALICIA – were used as insults. I didn’t even know those words.

JACK And then over time I realised this was something I shouldn’t be saying as I sort of said about it and nobody took any notice or it wasn’t received very well.

SAMUEL I actually have a problem with the word ‘homosexual’. From where I’m from it’s a negative word. When my parents use it it’s to demean someone, to bring them down so I prefer the word ‘gay’.

TAMI There were times when I went to school wearing make-up. I used to steal my mum’s. I never wore make-up at home. I used to take mascara and eyeliner and all the kids would laugh at me but it didn’t bother me. I wanted to be the attention seeker but then that got me into trouble too.

SAMUEL In primary school there was a girl I liked but I liked her brother more!

ALICIA I was ten or eleven and I said to my mum, ‘the girls at school are calling me a lesbian, does that mean I am?’ and my mum said –

ACTOR 2 ‘Of course you’re not. Don’t be ridiculous. You know you like boys.’

JACK I’d had a lot of depression and drug use in my teenage years because of stress to do with the way my body was changing. I really couldn’t handle it. I ended up doing the tomboy thing because I thought it was the only thing I could do and then I got to about seventeen or eighteen and I thought, well what am I? I remember the conversation I had with myself and it was really separate, picking it apart, trying to work out what the fuck I was and I thought well, I’m a tomboy who’s grown up and I thought what’s that? And I thought (joyous, elated realisation) ’it’s a dyke!’ and then I thought (sudden doubt) ‘Am I a dyke?’

ALICIA I sort of went from each sexuality trying to find the right one. It started when I was fifteen or fourteen and I thought I was bisexual and then at eighteen I came out as gay.

TAMI I came out as gay when I was eleven years old. I had my first sexual encounter at twelve (TAMI gets up off her chair and provocatively prowls the stage.) at school with another pupil three or four years older than me. It was confusing but exciting. I’d had a slice of the cake or the forbidden fruit that had fallen from the tree. I picked it up and tasted it.

ALICIA When I look back now to myself at a young age I wasn’t straight at all, it was pretty blatant but I just pushed it down.

SAMUEL My parents had an idea of black kids coming here from Nigeria and getting corrupted, westernised and becoming something else. They didn’t want us to become ‘Bad Western Kids’. We weren’t allowed to have friends as they thought they would corrupt us and tell us things we shouldn’t be hearing and make us do things we shouldn’t be doing. We had curfews. Once we got into trouble for going out without telling them and we got back late about eight thirty pm and we all had to sleep outside in the cold. We weren’t allowed back in.

TAMI It took me a year to tell my mother. Her reaction wasn’t loving. We went to my mum’s friend’s house and I was playing upstairs with my mum’s friend’s kids and I told them that I was gay and they came downstairs and told my mother. I was thirteen and she called my name very loudly, my male name which was –

ACTOR 4 suddenly comes forward, at a family friend’s house now and at the bottom of the stairs, shouting ups them, furious and in her own pain.

ACTOR 4 ‘DYLAN!’

TAMI And I went down and she said to me –

ACTOR 4 ‘Are you gay?’

And I said ‘yeah I’m gay’ and she punched me in the face.

ACTOR 4 strikes out and even though TAMI is on another part of the stage, her head violently flips back as she receives the blow. After a second, she recovers, composes herself, still breathless and winded though.

TAMI I cried my eyes out, left the house, ran away and didn’t come back until a week later.

TAMI scurries away.

ALICIA My dad who is very homophobic and very small minded on every topic and would probably vote UKIP, if he was inclined to vote, started saying more and mor...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half-Title page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Foreword
• Characters
• Contents
• Notes on Staging
• Safe