A chorus of old and not-so-old gay men are taking to the stage for 'Silver Stars' at Dublin's Project Arts Centre.
The production tells the stories and experiences of gay Irish men from the 1960s, 70s, and more recent times.
Singer/songwriter Seán Millar wrote the show, which features a mixture of song and spoken word, based on interviews with ordinary men from rural villages across Ireland to New York city, from Dublin to Soho, and to Sydney and back.
Mr Millar said his aim was to "create a production that would tell the real-life stories of ordinary men in search of happiness and fulfilment, in a country that was challenged by their existence."
"I wanted to explore the story of people who had left Ireland as they believed that they could not be here as it was not safe culturally to be here as gay man," Mr Millar said.
Erich Keller is one of the performers in the show and his experience as a teenager in Dublin more than 35 years ago, when he was struggling with his identity, is just one of the stories Mr Millar weaves into the production.
"Back in the 90s when I was a teenager and growing up in Dublin, I was closeted, and very aware of the illegality of being gay," Erich explained, adding that "on the one hand you have this internal experience, where being gay is not allowed and is not ok in public, and then in Dublin city centre, you could walk into a gay bar where it was acceptable."
"You had this isolated compartmentalised life," he said.
Mr Keller described the experience of growing up in Dublin at the time as "so lonely" and said "there were no good public role models."
"Back in the 1980s when I was growing up, any of the gay characters on telly, you just laughed at, figures like Larry Grayson - the public version of being gay at the time was always portrayed as camp and laughable and there were no-one to look up to," he said.
Mr Keller went to explain how when he was 18, "I was out in the working world and I had my first experience at a party over Easter where there were homosexuals and I had my first kiss.
"The next day, I thought I can't be here in Dublin any more. It was awful, so then when the travel agents was opened on Easter Tuesday I booked a flight to France to get away. It was so lonely."
The show is presented by the acclaimed theatre company 'Brokentalkers' and Sean Millar has a special interest in creating shows featuring community based creativity, music and education programmes.
Mr Millar said that 'Silver Stars' was written from both interviews with older gay Irish men and workshops with the cast, and the events they described ranged from the second world war to the 1980s.
"Their widely different stories, deal in the main with how to live authentically as a man, in a violently homophobic society, if you are gay," Mr Millar said, explaining that "they discuss various aspects of life through an Irish gay lens, spirituality, Catholicism, long-term relationships, the swinging sixties, the AIDS crisis, activism, but, and most importantly, love."
He added that the show "captures tales of love, loss, family, spirituality, defiance and joy."
Mr Millar also explained why he cast a range of performers from professional actors to men who never performed before in 'Silver Stars'.
Mr Keller is one of the cast members who had not formally acted before auditioning.
He said that "performing and being part of the show has been very important", adding that the "element of the healing in the show was so strong for us... each of us has our own story."
The show was first performed over 15 years ago at the Bealtaine Festival, where it was highly acclaimed, and this version now returns to the stage at Project Arts Centre to launch the 30th anniversary celebrations for the Bealtaine festival.
Bealtaine is Ireland's national annual festival celebrating the arts and creativity as we age. There are events taking place across the country throughout the month of May.
