Guest Blog: Actor Lee Knight On COMING CLEAN at Trafalgar Studios

Going into rehearsals for the third run of Coming Clean - by the late Kevin Elyot - was exciting but also somewhat daunting. As an actor, you want to have a fresh approach, but, having done the play twice before, I also wanted to retain the things that I found in the last productions. That's the challenge this time round.

But I do understand my character and the play on a much deeper level, having worked on it for so long, so a lot of the work has been done already. And having one new cast member certainly changes the dynamic, which is very useful.

The reason I've come back for a third run is that it's hard to say no to such a beautiful yet quite brutal piece of writing. It's not often you get to work on a piece written by such a talented writer, and my character Tony really does go on a deep emotional journey within the play - which, for an actor, is extremely rewarding.

Every time I play him, I uncover some other layers, and the hope is that this time I will find even more. That's both the fun and the challenge. As humans, we are so complicated, and Kevin Elyot really understands that and injects it into his stories and characters perfectly.

I think people really relate to this play because, for some, it is very nostalgic. Set in the Eighties, it has a very genuine feel. The set is so incredibly detailed it's like walking into someone's home and sitting in their living room, waiting for it to come alive.

The audience are right there in the moment, watching everything as it unfolds, with their feet on your living room carpet. Sometimes, I have to knock their feet out of the way if they've decided to stretch their legs - but they like that! They like feeling part of it.

So the audience is instantly taken back in time - and for many, it is their history. They're watching a story that includes certain social and political events that they lived through.

The success of Mathew Lopez's The Inheritance last year highlighted the need to learn about our past in order to understand our future, and this reminded me so much of Coming Clean. Many gay men today live in relative privilege. Yes, of course, there is still so far to go, but the fact that gay marriage is now legal is a huge step in the right direction. However, it's vital to look back to different times to see how gay men lived and to understand what the gay community went through in order to get to where we are today.

We need to appreciate, be proud of and understand our history, to make sense of it, and Coming Clean is a part of that. It's set in a time where 'gay bashing' was commonplace, the AIDS epidemic hadn't even happened, and the only place for gay men to find love and affection was in more dangerous places.

In 1982, homosexuality had not long been decriminalised, so it was merely tolerated - meaning gay people never felt like they belonged. There was the constant need to find their way to love and acceptance.

In the play, Tony and Greg try to make their long-term relationship work. It is about honesty and transparency and understanding the changes in a relationship - and these are all things that anyone can relate to, whatever your sexual preference.

Coming Clean at Trafalgar Studios 8 January-2 February

Photo credit: Joseph Sinclair, Beastly Studios

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