Play about gay officer revives memory of John MacLennan's 1980 suicide
Agnes Allcock's script is loosely based on the story of Hong Kong policeman John MacLennan
A play by a retired senior civil servant has reopened a forgotten chapter of history about attitudes towards homosexuals in Hong Kong.
Agnes Allcock, who retired as director general of London's Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office late last year, tells an intricate story about a police inspector in the 1970s driven to his death by discrimination against gays.
Behind the Curtain, which the True Heart Theatre group premiered in London this month, is based loosely on the suspicious death of John MacLennan. The Scot was found dead with five gunshots wounds to his chest on the morning he was to be arrested on charges of indecency.
His death in 1980 led to the most expensive public investigation in the city at the time. Not only did the public ask how a person could fire off five rounds into his own heart, but conspiracies arose over the motive behind the police force's charges against MacLennan of homosexuality.
"Homosexual behaviour was very much a taboo in those days - and unfortunately still is," said Allcock, who was a fellow inspector of MacLennan before she became a government administrative officer.
She said homosexuals were closeted and those in the public service had to take extra risks.