A beautiful boy meets boy story set against the backdrop of a world which doesn’t love them
Our 1972 is about two young men who have just entered adulthood and moved to London for university. We’re introduced to our characters through monologues as they write in their respective diaries, a device consistent throughout. Andrew, played by Josh Maughan (who also wrote the play) is studious, introverted yet ambitious, and already aware of his homosexuality. Benjamin, played by Peter Hadfield, the yin to Andrew’s yang, the Tigger to Andrew’s Pooh, is initially introduced as your typical sports lad who’s chosen to go to uni and study politics despite not truly knowing who or what he wants to be in life.
The play is performed in the small and intimate Hope Theatre with just two chairs and a stack of records either side of the stage making up the setting. With the audience a breath away from the actors, director Joshua Dowden uses this brilliantly to the play’s advantage. The play is littered with moments involving the audience in subtle ways. The actors make eye contact during monologues, or use the audience as extras during scenes that involve a large crowd. These small touches brought us a little bit closer into the story in a small but effective way.
Andrew and Benjamin meet whilst attending their British Politics lectures at uni. Most of the early interactions with the characters are in conflict. They bicker about politics, music, or even just about how they are with each other. This was perhaps my only gripe with the play overall. While I appreciate that a relationship needs to grow, and that the connection between these souls goes deeper than the surface, I would have liked to see a bit more nuance in their early interactions, a mixture of tension and charm. It felt a little too antagonistic for two strangers. But this is my only gripe and from the point where the charm was established, I have nothing but adoration. The frost between the characters thaws, they fall in love, and our plot is driven by the desire to not have to live their life in private. They pursue liberation by taking part in the activism of the first gay rights groups of 1970s Britain.
As the play goes on we learn of a beautiful contrasting depth to the characters through the advancement of the plot.. Andrew, so sure of himself in what he wants from his life, and very aware that he is gay, is so scared of that fact, so aware of how challenging his life will be in 70s Britain as a gay man. Maughan’s portrayal is sublime. The monologues in particular in which Andrew muses on his life and his position are beautifully written and performed. As he falls in love with Benjamin, he fears his own feelings, dreads his own desires. Risk averse Andrew is all too aware of the social landscape.
Benjamin has been outgoing and popular his whole life, he’s not been raised to fear anything. Raised by an activist mother and with a talent for cricket that promised him great things, he arrives at university without a purpose, and finds himself captivated both by Andrew and his desire to create a world where they can live happily. Peter Hadfield does a wonderful job of portraying a character so full of love and ambition, wilfully blind to the risks of what he wants to pursue, to the point that Andrew perceives it as foolhardy, and a brief wedge between them is driven.
The play closes as the characters reconcile, and embark on a public protest for gay rights. Benjamin playfully hands out signs to the audience emboldened with slogans, and the characters march on to change the views of the country. As the actors leave the stage, the audience is left with a short video projection onto the stage that shows news clips of modern day hate and protest directed towards transgender people. The team behind the play here draw parallels to what the gay community went through in the 20th century, a struggle that most people today find shameful, and the attitudes towards a similarly marginalised group, the transgender community, who are facing similar struggles for the right to exist in peace. A poignant end to a wonderful play.