A Haunted Existence weaves together history and hearsay to highlight turmoil, stigma and heartbreak and tell the story of Britain’s very recent, shameful past.

b-side festival artist Tom Marshman returns to Portland with his latest show.

Tom blends creative technology, music and projection as he retraces the forgotten true story of a young local man arrested for gross indecency.

In the early 1950s, 17 year old Geoffrey Patrick Williamson was on the Exeter to Bristol train when he got into a conversation with another man, also travelling in his train compartment, who accused Geoffrey of making ‘improper approaches’ . The other man was a Railway Officer in plain clothes. Geoffrey was arrested at the next stop, Taunton. When questioned, Williamson revealed the names of men he had had sex with, so beginning a domino effect of arrests, prison sentences, aversion therapy and suicide.

Royal Manor Theatre
138A Fortuneswell
Portland
DT5 1LT