Author and performer Sam Danson returns with a brand new play known as Daddy’s First Homosexual Date, which is able to obtain its London debut at Seven Dials Playhouse from October 28 – November 16 2025.
Directed by famend LGBTQ+ advocate Rikki Beadle-Blair, Daddy’s First Homosexual Date is a sharply comedian and emotionally trustworthy exploration of how queer males are formed by expectations. The forged options Sam Danson as Ben, Dior Clarke as Tim, and Megan Edmondson as Helen. While the play is a romantic comedy, it additionally addresses severe points and themes which are sometimes absent from the style.
These embrace bisexuality, internalised disgrace, psychological well being, and the messy enterprise of attempting to develop into the person you truly need to be, moderately than the one you suppose you ought to be. It additionally tackles the skin pressures to adapt to stereotypical masculine beliefs, and the inside voices of doubt, and repression that make it tougher to embrace who you actually are.
Daddy’s First Homosexual Date introduces us to Ben, a person in his early 30s who, we be a part of throughout one of the eventful nights of his life – simply as he builds up the braveness to confess that he’s questioning his sexuality and due to this, to finish his heterosexual 15-year relationship; he finds out he’s about to develop into a father. That very same evening, having bid a tearful goodbye to his ex-girlfriend, he embarks on his first-ever sexual encounter with a person.
The story follows Ben as he navigates the push and pull with Tim – a British-Jamaican man from London who finds himself in the identical small northern city – veering between attraction, concern and curiosity as he stumbles via the difficult and unfamiliar guidelines of queer courting whereas carrying the brand new weight of impending fatherhood.
Set in a small northern industrial city, the play highlights the distinction between the concept of open queer life in a giant metropolis and the truth of a spot the place homosexual males really feel they need to cover, or at the very least play down their id of their each day lives. In a group the place it’s simple to really feel like the one one, Ben has by no means met one other overtly homosexual man earlier than he meets Tim.
Tim, in flip, is without doubt one of the solely black males within the space, which brings its personal challenges in coping with the racial microaggressions which might be by no means extra stark than when dwelling in a small – and really white – northern city. Each characters carry the burden of being outsiders, discovering themselves remoted in typically completely different however equally defining methods. The present explores the black working-class expertise via the character of Tim, and in addition addresses the racism confronted inside the queer group.
It additionally calls consideration to the position of courting apps like Grindr in small cities, the place homosexual males might solely really feel protected to be seen when they’re alone, logging on after the pubs have closed, reflecting an unstated reality of dwelling as a homosexual man in a less-than-accepting atmosphere. Daddy’s First Homosexual Date highlights that there isn’t any single “homosexual expertise” and as a substitute it traces the gamut of what queer life in these locations can contain: from daring to go on an overtly homosexual date, to scrolling on Grindr after darkish, to navigating secret liaisons, the pull of big-city nightlife, and the quieter actuality of on a regular basis work and household accountability. At its coronary heart, the play asks what it takes to maneuver towards self-acceptance once you’re one of many solely overtly homosexual individuals in a small city, miles away from the visibility of a metropolitan hub.
Daddy’s First Homosexual Date is the most recent present from Sam Danson, following on from the success of his earlier present BI-TOPIA, which acquired widespread important reward. Whereas coming-of-age comedy BI-TOPIA explored bisexual id, Daddy’s First Homosexual Date considers what it means to simply accept queerness later in life in a spot the place it usually stays unstated, and the way the queer expertise can differ primarily based in your race, gender or age.
He’s joined by director Rikki Beadle-Blair, who has been credited with bringing Black, homosexual and working-class experiences to a large viewers, as author and director of numerous performs and movies, and creator of the pioneering TV present Metrosexuality. He’s additionally established as a pivotal voice in championing LGBTQ+ tales and visibility, spanning a profession that features filmmaking, playwriting, performing, and direct activism.
Daddy’s First Homosexual Date performs at Seven Dials Playhouse between October 28 and November 16. Tickets can be found right here.
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