Gavin and Stacey star shines in moving drama

The Pride, written by Alexi Kaye Campbell was praised and decorated with awards upon its debut in 2008 for its sensitivity, compassion and poignancy. It returns here to the West End's Trafalgar Studios featuring a talented and renowned cast, who perform this play which juxtaposes the predicaments of a group of gay men in 1958 with that of characters in a similar situation fifty years on.

Gavin and Stacy star Matthew Horne here displays his versatility. He performs three roles, each one satisfyingly different and complex, and in doing so proves that he is an actor to be taken seriously. The remaining trio who make up the cast also perform a remarkable job, subtly outlining what is different and not so different about attitudes to homosexuality today and a generation ago. While a serious topic, the play remains light hearted at times, as well as frequently amusing and heartwarmingly sympathetic.

What is The Pride about?

In 1958, Phillip and Sylvia, the ostensibly happily married couple, are entertaining Oliver at dinner. Oliver is a gay man, living in a time when public acceptance of homosexuality was seeing a rocky, and often rejected period of transition. Phillip meanwhile is repressing an attraction towards Oliver. This unhappy scenario, which outlines the unwarranted guilt felt by gay men and women of the age is then shown in the context of the modern day, and asks what might be different had these characters been born fifty years later.