Written by Amanda David
What happens when you’re on the cusp of fatherhood and also embarking on your first-ever date with a man?
Following the success of his debut show BI-TOPIA , writer and performer Sam Danson is delighted to be bringing his new play Daddy’s First Gay Date – a brand new rom-com tackling serious issues – directed by renowned LGBTQ+ advocate Rikki Beadle-Blair to the Seven Dials Playhouse.
Daddy’s First Gay Date is a sharply comic and emotionally honest exploration of how queer men are shaped by expectations – the outside pressures to conform to stereotypical masculine ideals, and the inner voices of doubt, and repression that make it harder to embrace who you really are.
It’s a romantic comedy that tackles themes often absent from the genre, including bisexuality, internalised shame, mental health, and the messy business of trying to become the man you actually want to be, rather than the one you think you should be.
In Daddy’s First Gay Date we meet Ben, a man in his early 30s, who we join during one of the most eventful nights of his life – just as he builds up the courage to admit that he is questioning his sexuality and because of this, to end his heterosexual 15-year relationship he finds out he’s about to become a father. That same night, having bid a tearful goodbye to his ex-girlfriend, he embarks on his first-ever sexual encounter with a man.
The story follows Ben as he navigates the push and pull with Tim – a British-Jamaican man from London who finds himself in the same small northern town – veering between attraction, fear and curiosity as he stumbles through the complicated and unfamiliar rules of queer dating while carrying the new weight of impending fatherhood.
The show explores the black working-class experience through the character of Tim, and also addresses the racism faced within the queer community. It also calls attention to the role of dating apps like Grindr in small towns, where gay men may only feel safe to be visible when they are alone, logging on after the pubs have closed. Daddy’s First Gay Date highlights that there is no single “gay experience” and instead traces the gamut of what queer life in these places can involve.
Venue: Seven Dials Playhouse, 1A Tower St, London WC2H 9NP
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