This touching play centers on the final night of the beloved Edinburgh Lesbian and Gay bookstore, The Lavender Menace, before it closes. Through two soon-to-be-ex employees, the audience will celebrate and examine life in Edinburgh in the stolid 1980’s. For the reading of Lavender Menace, Inis Nua will partner with Philly AIDS Thrift @ Giovanni’s Room, an LGBTQ-focused bookstore in Philadelphia, the oldest and longest running gay and lesbian bookstore in the US, encouraging attendees to shop and donate to Giovanni’s Room. Tickets for the reading are free but reservations are recommended. 

“Love Song to Lavender Menace is an homage to Edinburgh’s first radical, feminist, and LGBT bookshop on its last night of existence, in 1987,” said Director David Bardeen. “It’s a queer romcom tour de force with books, time travel, and disco. What’s not to love? But for me, it’s about the spaces we as a Queer Community feel safe in and how conservative politics, gentrification, and other factors are trying to make those spaces smaller and smaller. Do we lose our identity and sense of community when the spaces we created to feel safe, the bars and clubs, coffee shops and gyms, bathhouses and bookstores and community centers disappear?”

Playwright James Ley has been called “One of Scotland’s most exciting, early-career writers” from Exeunt Magazine. Ley is currently working on projects for Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Ambassador Theatre Group, Perth Theatre and the Scottish Film Talent Network.