Actor slaps down heckler who shouted out during gay kiss on stage

 
Lindsay Watling2 August 2013

An actor took a stand against homophobia at a London theatre after an audience member shouted abuse as two men kissed on stage.

The heckler was among the spectators at The American Plan on Wednesday and tutted before crying out “makes me sick” at the embrace between the two male characters Nick and Gil.

Mark Edel-Hunt, who plays Gil, responded by returning to the stage at the end of the curtain call with a sign depicting the Stonewall campaign slogan – “Some people are gay. Get over it!”.

The play, which runs at the St James Theatre until August 10, tells the story of the daughter of a wealthy German-Jewish refugee who falls in love with a handsome stranger at a holiday camp in the Catskill Mountains near New York in a 1960s summer.

It debuted in New York in 1990 and has been revived by the British Theatre Royal Bath.

In the second half of the play, which was written by Richeard Greenberg, it transpires that Nick, who appears to be straight, has had a previous affair with Gil, who turns up at the camp.

The audience are not expecting it, but the two men end up kissing.

Andy Wasley, from Stonewall, told Gay Star News, said he was delighted at the cast’s reaction to the stunt.

He added: “Given that Richard Greenberg’s most famous play is about a gay man, whoever complained about the kiss proved themselves to be as ignorant about theatre as they are about the reality of modern life.

“It’s great to see a spirited response to such offensive behaviour.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in