World premiere of Gary Clarke Company's dance show Detention at Nottingham Playhouse

The world premiere of a bold dance performance exploring the secrecy forced on LGBT+ people is to be staged in Nottingham.

Pioneering, award-winning dance company the Gary Clarke Company return to Nottingham Playhouse in May, with new show Detention.

A sequel to the company’s previous successes Coal and Wasteland, Detention will explore the 1988 Section 28 legislation brought in by Thatcher’s government which ‘prohibited the promotion of homosexuality’.

It forced the LGBT+ community into a place of secrecy, fear and shame — set to a backdrop of nationwide industrial turmoil and the onslaught of AIDS.

Detention features five extraordinary dancers from the LGBT+ community, together with a community cast of local LGBT+ people, in what promises to be a bold and moving portrayal of the time.

The brand-new show will have just two performances at the venue, on May 8 and 9.

The Gary Clarke Company, from Barnsley, South Yorkshire, is renowned for high impact, high quality dance-theatre, and will in this production draw on verbatim testimonies and vivid choreography to tell the stories of the remarkable resilience of individuals and organisations under the legislation.