To Be Straight With You (Artistic director, Lloyd Newson). Warwick Arts Centre.
SOMETIMES going along to see a work of art can be such a profound experience that it's difficult to put into words what it was like.
That's not too much of a problem for most people, but not so helpful when you're a journalist trying to review the piece.
It's that situation I find myself in with DV8 Physical Theatre's stunning To Be Straight With You.
Artistic director Lloyd Newson leads a multi-ethnic cast in a beautiful but no-holds-barred look at sexuality and religion.
His starting place is the fact that 85 countries still criminalise same-sex relationships - in seven of those, the death penalty still exists for homosexuality.
Focussing on the UK, 85 people were interviewed, including those who are both gay and religious, those who have given up one for the other, members of the clergy, human rights organisations, and those opposed to homosexuality due to their religious beliefs.
Vox pops on the streets of London were also carried out, with researchers asking passers-by how they feel about gay marriage and the relationship between religion and sexuality.
Their words - and nothing else - are used verbatim to produce To Be Straight With You.
Some is spoken by the people themselves in audio pumped onto the stage, some by the performers.
Text, dance, animation and film are all used to pull the different strands together. The animation in particular is done with a masterful hand.
In one scene a man moves as if within a cartoon of his own life. In another, a narrator stands as though he is within a globe, spinning it around to demonstrate different countries' attitudes and highlighting areas of criminalisation.
At one point, one performer is completely rubbed out, as if with a black pen, becoming nothing more than a silhouette.
The result is a piece of moving intensity, taking us from the life of violence and fear in Jamaica to the promise of a better, more tolerant life in Britain.
We hear from the Iraqi doctor who tries to flee to the UK after the war, only to see his partner killed before he can escape; the Hull teenager who tells his father he's gay and ends up being stabbed for his troubles; the Israeli woman who is disowned by everyone she knows when she comes out; the married Muslim man who can't resist dancing to Shakira, or his male lover.
The audience is shown that once you scratch beneath the surface, life in modern Britain is not as liberal or as tolerant a safe haven as many believe.
And tolerance is all very well, but it's not acceptance.
While the film of Jamaican violence and the facts on criminalisation make uncomfortable watching, it's these stories from our own backyard that are the most disturbing.
To Be Straight With You tackles the difficult subject of homosexuality and religion with a fierce and unflinching eye.
Brave, uncompromising and emotional, this is an 80 minute journey that will leave you speechless. But not for long.
What's on 
