Irish playwright Micheál Kerrigan is first and foremost an activist. In 1973, he organized the first Gay Pride March in Dublin, and 20 years later, put together the first Gay Pride Festival in his own hometown of Derry. But until the release of 2014's Pride (starring Bill Nighy), few Americans knew about the Lesbian and Gays Support the Miners movement, which emerged in Thatcher-era Britain during a brutal, yearlong strike. Kerrigan was there, too. When the Iron Lady froze all union assets, support groups such as LGSM were paired directly with mining communities. For the Love of Comrades tells the intimate story of a shy, young gay man from Derry who volunteers to host visiting Welsh miners in the London flat he shares with his indulgent but dubious partner. Through heartfelt, hilarious, and veracious dialogue we explore this unlikely alliance, finding deep ley lines between the struggles facing workers, Northern Ireland, and the LGBT rights movement. Our only complaint: Our U.S. premier inexplicably dropped Kerrigan's U.K. title, Pits and Perverts, a pejorative headline reclaimed for LGSM's smash 1984 fundraiser (starring Bronski Beat!). Now, that's a theater T-shirt we'd buy.
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