Tyres slashed outside performance of gay play in suspected hate crime

Over a dozen of actors and theatregoers had their tyres slashed during performance of gay play in Sydney over the weekend.

Following the Saturday night performance of the Lane Cove Theatre Company’s Holding the Man, a play based on Timothy Conigrave’s memoir about life with his partner, John Caleo, audience members, crew and actors were shocked to find that their tyres had been slashed. At 10:30pm over a dozen of them discovered that they had been victim to the act of vandalism outside of St. Aidan’s Performance Space on Christine Street.

The Lane Cove Theatre Company production had already seen some resistance to their performance a month earlier when a promotional poster for their production was torn down outside Lane Cove Plaza, a popular shopping and dining spot in the affluent suburb of Lane Cove.

Actor Trent Gardiner told the Australian Broadcasting Company that “It certainly leads you to believe that somebody was targeting us”.A MP for North Sydney, Trent Zimmerman, who attended the performance took to Facebook to express his feelings surrounding the incident: “This type of behavior has no place in our local community and should be condemned. Just disgraceful that any person would be targeted in this way.”

This incident is one of many that has taken place in the run up to the upcoming public survey on marriage equality in Australia. Anti-marriage equality posters have appeared in other parts of Sydney and in Melbourne, containing homophobic rhetoric and inspiring animosity towards the LGBT community in Australia.

There is an ongoing investigation into the Lane Cove incident, with police including “bias” being a motive behind the acts of vandalism. Thankfully, this incident didn’t dampen the spirits of the company which enjoyed great success in the production’s final sold-out performance the following night.

Words by Ifan Llewelyn

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