THEATRE

A Public Display of Affection

Jonathan Wilson / Rhymes with Purple

Venue

Gilded Balloon Patter House

Dates

5–30 Aug 2026

Time

7:20pm · 60min

Price

from £9

At a queer community event, an "inspirational" elder steps up to deliver the speech everyone expects: warm, wise and reassuring. Instead, he tells the truth. Funny, furious and deeply human, this solo show tumbles through 1970s Toronto bars, police raids, bathhouses, AIDS wards and the polished cruelty of rainbow capitalism. Friends are lost, old compromises resurface and survival proves messier than nostalgia allows. This is a sharp, unsentimental reckoning with queer history, intergenerational memory and what it really means to live long enough to watch your identity become marketable.