Gently Down The Stream

A remarkably moving, brilliantly funny love story, Gently Down The Stream reflects the triumphs and heartbreaks of the entire length of the gay rights movement, celebrating and mourning the ghosts of the men and women who led the way for equality, marriage, and the right to dream.

Presented by Brave New Productions (celebrating 15 years) in special partnership with Fierté Montréal, Gently Down The Stream runs from August 2-11 at MainLine Theatre.

Fresh off the heels of their acclaimed Montreal Fringe run of Buyer & Cellar, Gently Down The Stream is a unique combination of an unexpected love story coupled with an intense and personal exploration of gay rights through history.

Beau (Joe Dineen), a pianist expat living in London, meets Rufus (Sean Curley), an eccentric young lawyer, at the dawn of the internet dating revolution. After a life spent recovering from the disappointment and hurt of loving men in a world that refused to allow it, Beau is determined to keep his expectations low with Rufus. But Rufus comes from a new generation of gay men who believe happiness is as much their right as anyone else’s, and what Beau assumed would be just another fling grows into one of the most surprising and defining relationships of his life.

Martin Sherman is the ground-breaking author of Bent, an exploration of the persecution homosexuals faced during the Holocaust. Bent was a Tony nominee for Best Play in 1980 and won the Dramatists Guild’s Hull-Warriner Award. Gently Down The Stream takes the audience through an exploration of gay history, including the Upstairs Lounge Arson attack, which occurred 25 years ago this June, and was the largest killing of gay people in U.S. history until the Pulse nightclub massacre in 2016.