SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland
Wednesday 1 January 2014
Mark Smith
Feature writer
In the last, quiet days of 2013, in a corner of the Tron bar in Glasgow, Steven Thomson is looking backwards and forwards – backwards to the 20th anniversary year of Glasgay!, the gay arts festival he has run since 2004, and forwards to some of the ideas he is working on for the 2014 festival.
The ideas include a farce about a Roman Catholic cardinal accused of sexual misbehaviour. Resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely deliberate.
Thomson thinks this idea of a comedy inspired by the Cardinal Keith O’Brien debacle is exactly the kind of work Glasgay! should be doing, although not the only kind. The mission statement he has composed for himself over the last few years is complicated: partly, it is about discussing the taboos around sexuality, including religious taboos; partly it is about being one of the few organisations in Scotland commissioning new theatre; partly it is about reflecting and inspiring changes in gay life and culture. And partly it is about having a good time.
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