Alan Turing. A quiet rebel. Ahead of his time. A gay man who demands his friends accept his sexuality, a lover of sex, hook-ups, but ultimately, a man longing for a permanent relationship. “Turing’s Law” is the personal history of a hero. FringeReview’s Dr.Pants speaks with Issac Verrall, the co-writer of Glass Cieling Theatre new production. You can see “Turing’s Law” during Colchester Fringe October 22-25.
NAP: Hello Issac! Thank you for speaking with Fringe Review today. Tell us: what is your show about?
IV: The show is set over one night in Alan Turing’s life. Many people know about his work on Enigma during the war, but few know about his reluctance to comply with societal views on homosexuality and his outwardly liberal attitude when it came to speaking about his sexuality. Later in life he wanted something more lasting in relationships. In the play, he spends a night with a man in Greece and as they spend time together, he questions whether he can ever truly achieve a lasting relationship. Will the restrictions placed on him after the war keep him from ever being open with another man.
NAP: There have been lots of dramatizations of Alan Turing’s life, most famously Benedict Cumberbatch in The Imitation Game. What makes your play unique and different?
IV: We are telling the unfamiliar side of Alan Turing. Not the mathematician, codebreaker and wartime here, but of Alan Turing the man. Turing’s Law is an intimate play about a national hero whose personal life is relatively unknown. We are taking Alan Turing out of the history books and placing him in a very human situation and one that many gay men can relate to. Alone with another man, wondering whether he can ever be fully himself and still be loved, carrying the weight of injustice. It is a story about a national hero, but not the one an audience will expect to hear about him.
While other stories about Alan Turing have done a great job with telling the story of wartime work and his role in breaking the Enigma code, our focus is different. We are focussed on Alan’s personal life, particularly the relationships and intimacies he shared with others and the lasting affect they had on him. Alan Turing could be very open about his sexuality, yet the society and legislation of the time “othered” homosexual men, making it difficult for them to form or sustain even the notion of a permanent relationship. At the same time, the restrictions imposed by the Official Secrets Act meant that even a future partner could never have had access to Alan’s whole life. His personal relationships were shaped not only by the social stigma of his sexuality, but by the secrecy of his wartime work.
NAP: So we shouldn’t expect a history lesson? This is a more interpersonal and emotional work?
IV: Turing’s Law isn’t a history lesson. It’s an insight into a man who our country considers to be one of its great heroes. It is funny, fascinating, intimate and angry. Alan Turing was messy, passionate, sexual, gay, witty and obstinate -a characteristic that ultimately led to his downfall. He meets man who is a bold, brash and clever with his own troubled secrets. Alan Turing wants companionship. Could man fill that gap? The play explores the mind of Alan Turing months before his death. In today’s legal system the jury is still out on whether he committed suicide or was it a tragic accident?
NAP: What has been the biggest challenge in preparing/performing your work for the Fringe?
IV: Finding the time! Our creative team are working on the play while also working full-time jobs. It’s one of the many challenges of being working-class creatives.
NAP: Why did you decide to perform at Colchester Fringe and bring Turing’s story to Colchester?
IV: Although Turing’s Law isn’t about Essex, or an Essex native, the show was born here. Our writers are ‘Essex boys’ and we want the show to represent the potential of what theatre produced in Essex can be. The show isn’t just a celebration of Alan Turing, but of Essex creatives.
NAP: Speaking of that potential, what are you hopeful audiences take away from the show? What is the goal in telling this story today?
IV: We want people to have a new view of Alan Turing. He was not quiet and reclusive. He was witty, sociable, bold and in many ways an ‘ordinary’ man who was also utterly brilliant. So brilliant that he has been immortalised on the £50 note. We look for the ordinary in the extraordinary and get under the skin. We want new conversations about Alan Turing and his true life as a gay man and how he shines as an example for other gay men criminalised for their sexuality.
“Turing’s Law” is on Thursday October 22nd at 8.30pm, Saturday October 24th at 4.00pm, and Sunday October 25th at 4.30pm. While you’re here, read about the other queer shows happening at the fringe including the true story of queer concentration camp survivors, a gay Canadian explaining Eurovision, or FringeReview’s Dr.Pants trip to the dark room.
