Angry F@gs

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Steve Noll

Two people looking at something, one with binoculars.

Jack Garton (left) and Jonah Hirst in "Angry F@gs," StageQ, 2024.

StageQ weighs in with a play smartly timed to election season. Topher Payne’s Angry F*gs, written in 2013, deals with violence and attitudes that have not changed in the 11 years since. When a friend is beaten up outside a gay bar, political speechwriter Bennett is outraged that it isn’t classified as a hate crime. This dark revenge comedy won the Gene-Gabriel Moore playwriting award. Shows at 7:30 p.m.Thursday, Friday and Saturday (except 2 p.m. on Nov. 16) and 2 p.m. on Nov. 10.

media release: Written by Topher Payne; d irected by Maxton James Young-Jones.

An out lesbian state senator is up for re-election. Her female opponent is a moderate conservative who’s aligned herself with right-wing extremists. They’re locked in a tight race in which each side dog-whistles to its base and any event can become instantaneously politicized.

When a gay man is bashed with a baseball bat and left to die, his ex-boyfriend, a campaign aide for the incumbent senator, is enraged. But it’s the unwillingness of his boss to label it a hate-crime that tips him over the edge. Teaming up with his best friend, the two men embark on a vendetta of sabotage and assassinations, reasoning that if gays aren’t respected enough to win equal justice and rights, fear will achieve what good intentions and politics cannot.

“A gay gentleman’s guide to love and murder... Filled with tension but laced with moments of black humor and rigged with unexpected twists and turns.” – Chicago Tribune

Performance Venue: Evjue Stage, Bartell Community Theatre

General Seating

Run Time: 120 minutes

Recommended Ages: 18+

Content Warnings:  Murder. Descriptions of graphic violence and hate crimes.