Gen S28: Press Up / Fold In
Alice Gale-Feeny
THURS 29 Oct 2026 | SPILL THINK TANK
What is it like to grow up under a law you didn’t even know existed?
Gen S28: Press Up/Fold In is an inventive, theatrical solo performance - part-history lesson, part-memoir and part-musical - exploring the experience of growing up under Section 28.
Introduced by Margaret Thatcher’s government in 1988 and repealed in England and Wales in 2003, Section 28 prohibited local authorities from “promoting homosexuality” and restricted how queer life could be mentioned in schools. For a generation, it shaped what could be talked about - and what was left unsaid - in the classroom.
Alice Gale-Feeny looks back on her childhood during the years of Section 28, bringing together personal stories, historical material and artworks made around the time of her birth in 1989.
Using research, movement, song, projections and a stack of embroidered T-shirts, Gen S28 combines stories, images and ideas from different eras in a playful, surprising and sometimes unsettling 30-minute performance.
SPILL Artistic Director, Robin Deacon, will host an artist Q&A with Alice after her performance.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
Date: Thurs 29 Oct
Time: 19:30 (doors open 19:00)
This event will last approximately 1 hour 30 minutes. The performance lasts approximately 30 minutes.
Venue: SPILL Think Tank
Tickets: £5
Ages: 16+
Access: There are two instances where audiences will be invited to participate, but this does not require moving from seats. You can choose to participate as much or as little as you wish.
The work uses projection, but there are no flashing images.
If you have any access requirements you would like to discuss with us, please call 01473 210169 or email boxoffice@spillfestival.com.
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Witty and fluid, intimate and rousing, Alice Gale-Feeny's performance uses song, movement, reading, and comedy to bring LGBTQIA+ histories to life. Her work has a tender charm and a powerfully contagious impact.
Helena Reckitt, Curator
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Brimming with life-affirming delight and risk
Jessica Jane Charleston, artist
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Intensely personal, thoughtful and inspiring - Gale-Feeny's exhibition [at Women's Art Library Goldsmiths] was an important reminder of the precarity of sexual freedom - and why we should never forget
Paul Baker, author of ‘Outrageous!’
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Alice Gale-Feeny is an artist who engages with contemporary art, experimental theatre, dance, live art and archival spaces. She has presented work nationally and internationally. Her performances, sculptures and drawings are the result of accumulated research, non-linear experiences and a certain level of fandom. Improvised movement scores and solo monologues are central to the work. She grapples with LGBTQIA+ histories, a desire to be around books, and for humour and sincerity to co-exist.
Gen S28: Press Up/ Fold In developed through a residency and exhibition at the Women's Art Library, Goldsmiths supported by Althea Greenan and Hannah Stageman (2024-25). The work further evolved through a residency at Newington Green Meeting House, London on the invitation of independent producer and curator Nikki Tomlinson and New Unity General Manager Nick Toner, funded by The Grand Camp Maisie Fund, made possible by the legacy of Andrew Lumsden (2025). The work has been further supported by the following individuals and organisations: Sarah Howe, Audrey Albert and A Particular Reality for ‘Queer Kinships’ at Manchester People's History Museum supported by School of Digital Arts, Manchester Met (2026), Jane Francis Dunlop and Section 28 and its Afterlives at Greenwich University Heritage Gallery (2026), Beth Bramich, Helena Reckitt and the Feminist Duration Reading Group for ‘Unbecoming Chorus’ at Goldsmiths CCA during Deptford X Festival (2025); and Supernormal Festival, Braziers Park (2025). Early research of this work were funded by a 2023 A-N Artist Bursary.
Image credit: More Than Images
