Two beautiful boys fall in love, but that love is a crime. Patrick Wilde directs his award-winning, funny, heart-breaking and ultimately triumphant tale of courage and defiance.

When What’s Wrong With Angry? opened at a small fringe theatre in London in 1993 it played to six people. By the end of the three week run, thanks to some rave reviews and word of mouth, people (including Sir Ian McKellen) were queuing round the block.

A searing indictment of the appalling ant-gay laws (The Age of Consent was 5 years higher for gay men, and Section 28 meant local authority was too afraid to support anything homosexual) in the UK it caught the public imagination and was particularly championed by the gay community. It transferred to the Oval House Theatre, and thence the BAC, both of which venues it sold out.

As a piece of political theatre it was a huge part of the movement towards real equality for gay men. The laws started to be relaxed, but inequality persisted. Writer Patrick Wilde was commissioned to write a feature film version, and the play finally made it into the West End at The Arts Theatre.

Since then the feature film was released under the name Get Real, and it won the Edinburgh Film Festival audience prize in 1998. It also garnered awards at Dinard, Sydney and was chosen to appear at Sundance. The play has been translated into several languages, and played in Germany and Switzerland. In America it is very popular, having been staged in Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

The play’s combination of politics, humour, a fantastic pumping soundtrack and a heart breaking love story has meant it has sold out almost everywhere it has played, and was described by Time Out as “popular theatre at it’s best – a real crown pleaser”. Though it tells of a time when things in theory were much tougher for young gay people, it still stands a celebration of the human spirit and determination to triumph, and in Patrick Wilde’s new shorter version directed by the playwright himself remains a poignant reminder of how recently things were very, very different.

Cast and Crew

With thanks to Hartley T A Kemp, Rhys Moores & Lee Hacker.
Terence Barton
Mr Carter / Mr Ayres
Terence is delighted to be making his Edinburgh debut in 2008. He trained at East 15 Acting School and has since performed extensively in Theatre throughout the UK including new work at The Yvonne Arnaud and The Tristan Bates Theatre. He has appeared in a number of short films and has fronted national and global advertising campaigns for Wrigleys, Seat Cars & Johnnie Walker Whisky.

Christopher Birks
John Westhead
Christopher has recently graduated from the University of Sheffield where he took roles in Cleansed (Rod), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Hamlet), Waiting for Godot (Vladimir) and the lead in Hatch Opens, Stark Light, a piece which amalgamated Pinter's One For The Road with Sarah Kane's 4.48 Pychosis. He appeared at the Fringe last year in The Liars and You've Got To Laugh at C Soco.
Charlie Deans
Linda
Charlie is delighted to be back for her second consecutive year on the Fringe. She previously appeared in and directed the show Scuffer at C venues, as well as playing many lead roles throughout her school career. After Edinburgh, Charlie will be attending the London School of Economics to read Social Anthropology and plans to study Drama in the future.
Mark Farrelly
Simon Hutton
Mark previously appeared at Edinburgh as the lead in Stephen Fry's Latin!, which transferred to the King's Head in London. He has since performed major roles at the Crucible, Sheffield (The Royal Hunt of the Sun), the Cambridge Arts Theatre (King Lear) and toured in Drowning on Dry Land, directed by Alan Ayckbourn. This autumn, he will play Nick in Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at the Lichfield Garrick, opposite Matthew Kelly. TV includes Backroom Heroes (Ch. 5).
Jennifer Hall
Jenny Keeley / Karen
Jennifer graduated from Drama Studio London in July 2007; this is her debut at The Festival. Her stage credits include Regina in Ibsen’s Ghosts and a variety of roles in the children’s theatre tour Gulp! She was Sick Serena in the short film Sick Serena and Dregs and Wreck and Wreck and played Sue in The Misinterpreted Proposal. Whilst training her roles ranged from Lady Anne, Richard III, to Nora, A Doll's House. She went onto play Dolores, Be My Baby, and multiple roles in Don Juan Comes Back from the War.
Oliver Jack
Steven Carter
Oliver attended the Manchester Grammar School and Loreto College where he developed his love of theatre. His theatre credits include Road, Scuffer, Black Comedy, Waiting for Godot, The History Boys, Les Miserables, Vent, Equus, The Pardoner's Tale, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Propaganda and extensive work within Theatre in Education. He returns to the Festival for his third consecutive year following two years
Alastair Mavor
Dave / George
Alastair Mavor was born in London and won a Drama Scholarship to Tonbridge School aged 12. He subsequently performed in the following productions: The Dumb Waitor (Gus), The Government Inspector (Governor), The Rivals (Faulkland), Teechers (Salty), A Servant to Two Masters (Florindo), The Visit (Mayor), Journey's End (Stanhope), Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde – Opera (Prime Minister). He acted and co-directed in a sell-out production of Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe, and is also a member of the NYT.

Matthew Runham
Glenn
Matthew studied Theatre and Perfor-mance Studies at Warwick, where he also gained his first experiences of the Edinburgh Fringe: as a visitor in 2003/2004 and as a performer in The Cider House Rules at C Electric in 2005. After graduating in 2005 Matthew moved to London and began acting professionally and returned to Edinburgh in 2007 with The Big Filling – a family show at the Underbelly (4 stars, The Scotsman).
Janine Stride
Mrs Carter
Janine trained at Central School of Speech and Drama. Since graduating, roles have included Sue Goddard in Home (The Tristan Bates Theatre); Mrs Squeers in Smike (Secombe Theatre), Eileen in The Angina Monologues (Hampton Hill Playhouse). She has also appeared in several short films. Janine is delighted to be making her Edinburgh Festival debut as Mrs Carter.
James Whittle
Kevin
James is delighted to be back for his third consecutive year on the Fringe. He has previously appeared in Black Comedy, Road and Scuffer, also directing Road. Elsewhere, amongst others he has performed in The History Boys, Les Miserables, Loot, Buried Child, The Comedy Of Errors and been involved in the production and direction of several shows. He is currently in his first year at Durham University, and plans to go to Drama school.
Patrick Wilde
Writer & Director
Patrick graduated from the Webber Douglas Academy in 1984. Acting credits include Mark Antony (A.T.C.), Orlando (York Rep) and Amnon in The Rape of Tamar (Lyric). Directing credits include over 20 Shakespeare productions, four Edinburgh Festivals, a tour of Pakistan, Jo Orton’s Loot and The Changeling (BAC). For TV, Patrick has written episodes of This Life, As If, Casualty, EastEnders and Holby City. Patrick has also written screenplays for the films, Things To Do Before You're Thirty and Get Real, the latter based on this play.

Glenn Chandler
Co-Producer
Glenn was born in Edinburgh and moved to London where he began writing for the stage. Three successful lunchtime plays for the Soho Poly Theatre were followed by television commissions for Angels, Crown Court, and a three-part Glasgow murder mystery called Killer which became Taggart, now officially the longest running detective series in the world. He has also written a series of true-crime dramas for Yorkshire Television, plus a number of novels. He lives in Hertfordshire.

Pete Shaw
Co-Producer & Graphic Designer
Pete was once Deputy Editor of Your Sinclair before turning his attention to the stage in 2002 to produce Patrick Wilde’s second play, You Couldn't Make It Up at the Gilded Balloon in Edinburgh and a London run of at The New End Theatre in Hampstead the following year. Pete also worked with Patrick in collaboration with Tim Rice to bring his medieval musical Blondel back to the London stage in 2006, and again with Patrick taking Lightning Strikes to the Dublin Gay Theatre Festival in 2008

Louis Hartshorn
Co-Producer
Louis begun acting at 15, and swiftly moved into the production side of theatre, beginning with an adaptation of Poiret’s The Birdcage. Following this, production and directing credits include The History Boys, Les Miserables, Waiting For Godot, Black Comedy, West Side Story, Private Lives and The Rat Pack – Forever Swinging amongst others. In 2006 composed a Requiem Mass for full orchestra and chorus with Jackson brothers Oliver and Phillip. Other work encompasses roles in the Manchester International Festival, Live Nation and the National Theatre.