In a conversation conducted via email, Clare Summerskill shared her thoughts on the importance of stories, intergenerational conversations, and how theatre can help us remember.

DH: How would you describe yourself or introduce yourself to our blog?

CS: I’m one of those people who may appear to wear many different hats when it comes to describing my work but, in my mind, all the areas are related since they focus on listening to, and re-telling people’s stories – generally those of people from the LGBTQ+ community and sharing them in a variety of ways: oral history projects, verbatim theatre productions, and through stand up and comedy songs. A few years ago, I also veered off into academia to attain my doctorate and so now I write academically about people telling their stories! My publications include: Creating Verbatim Theatre from Oral Histories (Routledge); Gateway to Heaven: Fifty Years of Lesbian and Gay Oral History (Tollington Press) and I co-edited New Directions in Queer Oral History: Archives of Disruption (Routledge). 

DH: How did you get into your area of work/study?

CS: All the work that I do now, theatre and oral history and performing one-woman comedy shows, is a result of working in each of those fields over several decades. My first degree was in History (at Sussex University) but even then, back in the early 1980s, I was performing in feminist and lesbian cabaret acts. I then went to drama school in London (Drama Studio) and worked as a jobbing actor for many years performing in shows that ranged from community theatre in Hull to a two year run in a West End  musical (Buddy). But as the years went by, I realised that I wanted to write the plays as well as perform in them and so I set up my own theatre company, Artemis and our first production was a verbatim piece (based entirely on interviews with 24 older lesbians and gay men) called Gateway to Heaven. We did two national tours of this play and I have been creating interview-based plays ever since. Previous productions include Rights of Passage (based on interviews with LGBT asylum seekers in the UK), Vis à Visibility (created from workshops with, and stories from, disabled LGBTQ+ participants) and, currently I am touring my latest play At the Rainbow’s End (presented as a script in hand performance by five members of my theatre company). This piece is based entirely on interviews with older LGBT people who have experienced homophobia and transphobia either in care homes, housing schemes or when receiving ‘care’ in their own homes. 

DH: What does LGBTQ+ heritage mean to you?

CS: I don’t mean to be picky, but I’m not sure that the word ‘heritage’ is appropriate here! Heritage usually refers to all the qualities, traditions, or features of life that have continued over many years and have been passed on from one generation to another, or a person’s heritage is their racial, religious or cultural identity that has come to them through their family. Each LGBTQ+ person is, more often than not, born into a family that is heterosexual and cisgendered. We spend our lives seeking others outside our family units who we can look to in order to recognise and validate our own identities. The ‘history’ of LGBTQ+ people is – thank goodness – becoming more and more regarded as both interesting and important to members of our community. With a little bit of digging around, we can see that there have always been people like us and we can learn about, and appreciate the campaigning work that has been going on for many decades now, which allows younger LGBTQ+ people to live their lives authentically, being able to reveal their true selves (at least in some Western countries) without the kind of fear or retribution that older LGBTQ+ people experienced. This is the first time ever, I think in history, where there have been two generations of LGBTQ+ people who can listen to and learn from each other (if they so wish!).

DH:What drew you to create At the Rainbow’s End?

Several years ago, I was involved in another theatre project about older LGBTQ+ people’s concerns about care provision in later life for members of our community. It was called Staying Out Late and was performed by workshop participants and professional actors at The Drill Hall, London. Nearly two decades later, I look around and wonder what, if anything, has been done in the intervening time by the care sector to prepare and provide for our specific needs as older LGBQT+ people who might face physical or mental challenges in later life. 

Recently, I heard an account from a gay friend of mine, Ted, about his partner, Noel, having dementia and being in a care home and Noel’s experience of incidents of physical homophobic abuse from the staff there. I combined Ted and Noel’s story with other testimony I gathered from interviews. An older trans man, Robin, who is disabled and relies heavily on care providers to support him in his own home, told me how they frequently make homophobic and transphobic comments, which makes him feel uncomfortable, unseen and, at times, quite vulnerable, and nothing is ever done when he submits complaints to their managers. The third story in the play is that of two older women (Maggie and Sylvia) who bought their own flat in a retirement community which was linked to a social housing scheme. In this environment, the management revealed the women’s sexuality to other residents, without the women’s knowledge or permission, and they were subsequently subjected to ongoing incidents of prejudice and exclusion.  

I felt compelled to record and share these stories with a wider audience who might otherwise have been unaware of such occurrences, in the form of a play which we are now touring to thousands of people around the country. The content is extremely moving, occasionally shocking, and very dramatically powerful since it is all based on ‘real’ people’s lives. We target audience members from the LGBTQ+ population as well as people who work in all aspects of the care sector. The play reading is followed by a post-show discussion, with writer, cast and invited panellists. In this way, an opportunity is created for a much-needed and long-overdue discussion around the subject matter addressed by the play. 

DH: What is verbatim theatre, and how does it affect/help our relationship with queer history?

CS: Verbatim theatre, as a term, generally refers to plays that are created entirely from – or at least based on – interview content. The interviews will have been conducted with a particular group of people who have all experienced a specific event, or who have shared experiences about the subject that the play discusses. 

Since the 1960s, theatre productions based on interviews have addressed and investigated social and political matters pertaining to local, national and international events, and verbatim theatre has now embedded itself in the contemporary theatrical landscape. One of the main aims of interview-based theatre productions is to retrieve previously unheard voices and experiences, frequently provided by members of communities whose stories have not been recorded. This makes verbatim theatre perfectly suited to telling the stories of members of the LGBTQ+ population (particularly older people) whose history has been largely neglected in mainstream documentation, and remains unaddressed within the education system. Gathering such interviews, which are then employed in playscripts, enables testimonies from a group in society, who have often experienced prejudice and oppression over their lifetimes, to be recorded and then dispersed to a wider audience in a way that is dramatically engaging as well as educational.

DH: What is one thing you would like people to take away from your upcoming play?

CS: The play is intended to promote awareness to those who might not know about ongoing incidents of prejudice and abuse towards older LGBTQ+ people by so-called ‘carers’. It is also intended to create discussion among members of the LGBTQ+ community as well as care sector workers about the specific needs - and indeed demands - of a group of people, many of whom will have spent their entire life being ‘out’, who, in later years, fear going back into the closet at a time when they are vulnerable and in need of help and support, simply because of the ignorance, misunderstanding, or even blatant cruelty of some care sector workers.   

At the Rainbow’s End will be performed on Sunday 24th November (2-4pm), at the Old Courtroom. Tickets are available here.