Aputheatre
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Aputheatre - (aka Aids Positive Underground Theatre Company aka APU aka APUT)
Aputheatre began life as Aids Positive Underground Theatre Company. Founded in 1989 at the Sussex Aids Centre in Brighton, England, the objective was to provide a cultural response to HIV and Aids. The company quickly established a reputation for hard-hitting drama very much in the In-yer-face theatre style and a good example of queer theatre. From 1994 onwards Aputheatre produced work that moved away from being exclusively about HIV-AIDS. Though HIV remained a key subtext in many works, other themes like prostitution, pornography, sexual politics became more important.
“A significant shift in Aids Theatre” - (Plays and Players May 1990)
The company’s first production Crying Celibate Tears by John Roman Baker was performed as part of the Brighton Festival Fringe. It was an instant hit with public and critics alike and the company was invited to perform the following year as part of the main Brighton Festival programme. This time the play was The Ice Pick and won the Festival Award for Best Theatre.
Several sponsors with drew funds from the Brighton Festival in protest at the company's inclusion, causing embarrassment within the festival administration and much public outcry. Political controversy often accompanied the company's performances. Politicians in Edinburgh and Forli, Italy tried to gain votes by calling for theatres' funding to be withdrawn. Printers refused to print festival brochures etc.
Even with the company's home base, the Sussex Aids Centre, there was great opposition to the company's work which was considered too strong, too gay and which never followed a politically correct line.
Aputheatre became Brighton and Edinburgh Festival regulars. Between 1989 amd 1997 their work was in many cities in the UK and internationally in Italy and the United States.
In 1998 Aputheatre’s two founders, John Roman Baker and Rod Evan moved to Amsterdam, where a creative relationship was established with the COC Amsterdam organisation. The company initially developed four strong plays which explored the sub-culture of prostitution among young East European men living in Amsterdam. 'The Prostitution Plays' together with a later production 'Romophobia' have charted the evolution and demise of male street prostitution in Amsterdam that has occurred at the beginning of the 21st Century.
Now based on the continent the company was able to take it's work to other European countries, with tours in Italy, Poland and Ukraine.
In 2003 the controversial East Side Skin was performed in Amsterdam and Eindhoven. The play explored the attraction of the far right within gay subculture and was inspired in part by the assassination earlier that year of Dutch Populist politician Pim Fortuyn. A DVD of that production was released early in 2004.
In 2005, the play Romophobia, explored the lives of two Romanians living illegally in Amsterdam, against a backdrop of sexual uncertainly and Police harassment. The play highlighted the policy of Police to raid gay bars on Amsterdam's Paardenstrat and then arrest, incarcerate and deport young men, with no legal representation. During the run of the play. Perhaps as a result of publicity around the play the Police raids stopped.
In 2006 with the production 'Prisoners of Sex' author John Roman Baker and Aputheatre returned to their original theme of HIV/AIDS to explores the complexity and compulsions of unprotected sex among men (Barebacking) who have sex with men.
