The Switchboard Project

“So I said to her-” “What time does Heaven close?” “Do you think I should leave him?” “I need to know if I’m sick.” In 1974, the London Gay Switchboard opens above Housmans Bookshop in Kings Cross. It won’t be renamed the London Lesbian and Gay Switchboard until 1986.

The phones never stop ringing. Join four lesbians on their shift, late into the night, as they lend a listening ear to the secrets, problems, and joys of their callers... all whilst arguing over who finished the coffee. Devised and written during Switchboard’s 50th anniversary year, ‘The Switchboard Project’ brings these long-forgotten, extraordinary stories and pivotal cultural moments out of the archive and onto the stage for contemporary audiences to experience for the first time.

It celebrates the important role lesbians played in gay liberation, the AIDS crisis, and building the queer community as we know it today, using true stories uncovered in London’s queer archives and brought together during a lengthy collaborative process.