Clearing out the closet

Actor-writer Rob Ward drew on his own experience as a gay football fanatic for Away From Home.

English actor-writer Rob Ward brings his award-winning play Away From Home to Auckland next week as part of the Pride Festival. It centres on a football fan who works as a rent boy and falls for one of his clients - a top football player.

Kyle is a rent boy and an avid football fan who must keep his sexuality a secret from his mates. How did you came up with that concept?
I've been a football fan most of my life. When you grow up on Merseyside, you don't choose whether you like football or not, your only choice is red or blue. I adore the game. And I am blue. I didn't come out until I was in my early 20s and the fact I grew up in the laddish culture of football certainly contributed to me staying in the closet.

As I began to deal with my sexuality I realised how infuriating the world of football - with the fans' homophobic insults towards players and the authorities' dismissive attitude towards such prejudice - made me feel. Simultaneously, I felt hostility from the gay community towards sport. As someone who found it difficult enough to accept who I was, there was the added pressure of feeling my interest in sport was acting as a further barrier to reconciling my sexuality. It was a complex mess. So I needed to write about it.

When I met Martin Jameson, the co-writer and director of the piece, he loved the idea of a play about homophobia in football and introduced the notion of a story of an escort and a footballer.

You are an Everton fan; is the play loosely based around your own experiences?
I wasn't relaxed about coming out at all. I knew I was attracted to men from about the age of 13 or 14, but I couldn't comprehend how a relationship between two men - family dinners, shopping trips, holidays away - could work. My response was to completely sweep it under the carpet - I'll deal with that later in my life.

I knew it was going to cause somewhat of a tempest in my personal life and when I was younger I was all about having fun. I also suspected, because of where I came from and the lack of role models for gay men in my world (ie, sportsmen), that it would be very difficult for people I knew to accept it. This was a fallacy and my friends were all wonderfully supportive. But I certainly wasn't "cool" in telling them. I would invite them individually out for dinner and my telling them I was gay became the centrepiece of the evening. By the time I got to the third friend, it was like, "If you're happy then great. I still love you. Now, what shall we have for dessert?"

Why is male sport so closeted? Surely there must be gay men playing football or, in New Zealand's case, rugby?
Let's look at statistics. In England there are 92 professional clubs in the football league. Say each of these clubs has at least 25 players on their first team squad. Not ONE of these footballers is gay? Clearly there are plenty of gay footballers, as there are gay men and women in every walk of life. There are many theories as to why ... but one thing I know about sport - a teammate is a teammate. I feel the problem is deeper rooted ... I feel it lies in where the money comes from in the world of football. When players like Wayne Rooney can command 300,000 ($617, 000) a week, we are talking mega bucks. The premier league is one of the biggest global brands. Over the last 10-20 years they have opened up markets in parts of the world that have abysmal human rights issues in relation to LGBT citizens. And do the sponsors want to risk a financial pitfall by investing in a club with an openly gay player knowing how this would go down in certain countries?

And let's look at some of the owners of clubs. Chelsea are owned by a Russian oligarch. Manchester City by the Abu Dhabi Royal Family. Add to that the enormous pressure that exists anyway in being the only person to stand out from the crowd.

Oh, and the last footballer in England who came out [Justin Fashanu] while still playing ended up taking his own life because of depression brought on by the response to his coming out. Good luck with that.

Kyle is at a match when he gets a call saying he's got a client, who turns out to be a footballer in the game he has been watching.
Regardless of it being based on a true story Martin had heard, it seems the anonymity guaranteed by hiring an escort is a hugely appealing thing for a closeted footballer.

He can enjoy companionship with another man without having to out himself.

Turn that escort into a football fan, with all the tribalism, banter and humour that goes with being a follower and you have potential for some comedy and, hopefully, a very interesting story.

And that is something I want to make clear - there is a lot of humour in there.

As told to Linda Herrick

Performance
What: Away from Home
Where and when: Herald Theatre, February 17-21