{"id":63994,"date":"2025-03-21T15:15:27","date_gmt":"2025-03-21T15:15:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/?p=63994"},"modified":"2025-03-21T15:15:29","modified_gmt":"2025-03-21T15:15:29","slug":"queer-theatre-production-toxic-arrives-in-sheffield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/2025\/03\/21\/queer-theatre-production-toxic-arrives-in-sheffield\/","title":{"rendered":"Queer theatre production &#8216;Toxic&#8217; arrives in Sheffield"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>HIV activist, actor and writer Nathaniel J. Hall has brought his show Toxic to Sheffield Playhouse Theatre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Toxic is set in Manchester\u2019s underground queer rave scene and explores Hall&#8217;s traumatic past and relationships spanning across three years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Co-starring with Josh-Susan Enright, &#8216;Toxic&#8217; is semi-autobiographical, exploring their experiences with drugs, alcohol, risk-taking sex, shame, depression and anxiety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"block-73464311-89df-4343-bb43-bef7ff6f57fa\">Hall said: &#8220;In rehearsals we both had moments where we just had to sit and hold each others hands and have a cry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The compound traumas of what had happened to me when I was younger had led me down quite a dark path and I&#8217;d been in this very toxic, co-dependant, at times abusive relationship for about five years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re often in the queer community forced to go &#8216;we&#8217;re proud! we&#8217;re proud of who we are, we fly the flag, we march in pride parades, we&#8217;re proud!&#8217; But behind the glittery curtain of that pride parade I think lots of us still struggle with profound shame.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to LGBT+ anti-abuse charity Galop, one in four gay and bisexual males will find themselves in a domestically abusive relationship after the age of 16.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/toxic-pr-photo-2-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"Two people striking poses, blue LED lights wrap around a wall behind them\" class=\"wp-image-64098\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/toxic-pr-photo-2-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/toxic-pr-photo-2-980x551.jpg 980w, https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/toxic-pr-photo-2-480x270.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) and (max-width: 980px) 980px, (min-width: 981px) 1024px, 100vw\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>They had a trained psychotherapist on set during rehearsals of certain difficult scenes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When writing &#8216;Toxic&#8217; Nathaniel hosted LGBTQ+ creative workshops and interviewed leading LGBTQ+ researchers, experts and writers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The show contains scenes of physical violence and fake blood, but according to Nathaniel it&#8217;s also funny and full of &#8220;pumping&#8221; music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hall&#8217;s career took off with his second play First Time in 2018, which tells the story of how he contracted HIV the first time he had sex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8216;First Time&#8217; received critical acclaim and has been performed 100 times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hall said: &#8220;It&#8217;s terrifying, I&#8217;m not going to lie, and every show I go &#8216;why am I doing this?&#8217; but then by the end of the show I go &#8216;I know why I&#8217;m doing this&#8217;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;My work is very much for LGTBQ+ people. People said that felt validated that they felt seen, that they&#8217;d been through something similar and they felt able to talk about it, they felt less shame. That&#8217;s the reason why I put myself through this.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8216;Toxic&#8217; will be in Sheffield again tonight at Playhouse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It will also be shown on 9 April at Loading Bay in Bradford, 11 April at Lawrence Batley in Huddersfield, and 24 April at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can get tickets for &#8216;Toxic&#8217; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.datathistle.com\/event\/2619025-toxic\/\">here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>HIV activist, actor and writer Nathaniel J. Hall has brought his show Toxic to Sheffield Playhouse Theatre. Toxic is set in Manchester\u2019s underground queer rave scene and explores Hall&#8217;s traumatic past and relationships spanning across three years. Co-starring with Josh-Susan Enright, &#8216;Toxic&#8217; is semi-autobiographical, exploring their experiences with drugs, alcohol, risk-taking sex, shame, depression and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":736,"featured_media":63998,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[43,21,86,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-news","category-top-story-4","category-uncategorised"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Queer theatre production &#039;Toxic&#039; arrives in Sheffield - ShefNews<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"HIV activist, actor and writer Nathaniel J. 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