Arts & Entertainment
Tragic hero
Film tells story of Alan Turing — from cracking Nazi code, to chemical castration and suicide
Patrick Sammon, right, on the set of his new docu-drama ‘Codebreaker’ in London. (Photo by Marc Sethi)
Scientist cracks codes to help defeat Germany during World War II, essentially laying the groundwork for modern computer science, but is busted for being gay and in 1950s England is chemically castrated and eventually commits suicide.
It’s a tragedy of epic proportions but such is the little-heard biography of Alan Turing. A new 81-minute docudrama about his life called “Codebreaker” debuts next week in Washington.
Novice filmmaker Patrick Sammon — a former executive director of the Log Cabin Republicans — says Turing’s story needs to be told.
“As I sorted through my hundred ideas,” Sammon says, “Turing’s idea quickly came to the top of the pile, because it was an amazing story, and I thought everyone should know about Turing’s contribution to our world. And then I realized there really hadn’t been a film like this done about him.”
The film (turingfilm.com) was released in the U.K. last year. Its U.S. premiere is Wednesday at the Georgetown AMC. It’s sponsored by the D.C. Center and tickets are available to the public (todpix.com/codebreaker). An advance screening and discussion were held last week at the National Press Club on the centenary of Turing’s birth and the film will also screen in New York on Oct. 25. Beyond that, TODpix, a distribution company, is working with grassroots organizations across the country to find audiences for additional showings.
Sammon, who’s gay, hopes to reach pockets of both the LGBT and tech communities to build a demand for additional screenings, culminating in “A Night with Alan Turing,” featuring screenings in 50 cities on Nov. 8.
Turing grew up in England in the early 20th century. He quickly stood out as a bright student and his teachers praised his “considerable powers of reasoning.” He developed a strong bond with fellow student Christopher Morcom. According to David Leavitt, novelist and Turing historian, “Morcom was, I think, more important to Turing than any other human being in his life. Turing was probably, in an adolescent way, quite in love with him.”
Patrick Sammon (Photo courtesy Sammon)
When Morcom died at a young age, Turing delved into his work as a sort of tribute to his late friend. As years passed, Turing developed the idea of the computer, broke encrypted German army messages during World War II and laid the groundwork for the future of artificial intelligence and mathematical biology.
Later in life, Turing had an affair with a 19-year-old named Arnold Murray, a friend of whose burgled Turing’s house early in 1952. Turing reported the crime, and the circumstances surrounding it, to the police. At the time, homosexuality was illegal in England and they charged Turing with indecency. Turing opted for hormonal treatment over prison, resulting in serious physical and mental side effects. Shortly after ending treatment, Turing committed suicide at the age of 41.
Sammon moved to Washington in 2003 to become a documentary filmmaker, but his career took a detour when he began working for, and ultimately running, the Log Cabin Republicans, a conservative organization that advocates for equal rights for the LGBT community. During this time, Sammon amassed many ideas for films. When he launched Story Center Productions in 2009, he partnered with a U.K.-based production company to help with his first film, “Codebreaker.”
He spent about six months in London during the production, which he’s been focused on full time since 2010. He factored in some living expenses into the production cost, which was funded largely from Channel 4 in the U.K. and also on his savings. Other donors, foundations and corporations including Intel and Google helped finance the project.
Sammon calls the film a “drama-documentary,” saying, “A third of it is drama, recreation, and then two-thirds is documentary. It’s a good mix of those two elements, and I think they play well together.”
It features a myriad of interviews with Turing’s relatives and associates, historians and industry professionals. His work is widely recognized as the foundation of all modern-day technology. In the film, Google’s Alma Whitten describes his contributions as timeless, saying, “They’re the things that are fundamentally true, so they’re always going to be with us, in the same way that the things that Galileo and Newton contributed to physics are always going to be with us.”
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak credits Turing with making possible all subsequent technology. “Alan Turing was sort of at the top of everything that ever developed,” Wozniak says in the film. “All the future research that was done by people, building real equipment that can compute.”
The interviews are juxtaposed with dramatizations of therapy sessions from Turing’s last year, while Turing was undergoing chemical castration. Ed Stoppard (“Upstairs, Downstairs”) plays Turing opposite Henry Goodman (“Taking Woodstock”) as Franz Greenbaum, Turing’s psychiatrist and friend.
Production for the dramatizations lasted only five days, but Stoppard’s performance is a stand-out piece of the film. He dramatizes the internal struggle that drove Turing to take his own life. Stoppard’s sometime-sardonic, sometimes-reflective comments mask a pain his character carried with him.
Sammon’s passion for the story stemmed from the injustice Turing faced despite his contributions to society.
“Here you have someone who is one of the key people who helped the Allies win World War II by breaking Germany’s naval enigma code,” Sammon says. “Then you have the technology world really giving Turing credit for creating the intellectual foundation for modern computer science. The paper he wrote in 1936 really laid down the key ideas for the modern computer.”
Sammon goes on to describe the “Shakespearean tragedy” that followed. “In spite of his genius, in spite of his amazing contribution to the war, the fact that he was gay, the government persecuted him because of it.”
During the course of a year of chemical castration, Turing took daily doses of estrogen. Effects of the treatment included shrunken testicles, a loss of his libido, a loss of body hair and the development of breasts. Months after the treatment ended, Turing’s body had not returned to its normal state. Sammon believes Turing elected the hormone therapy, in place of a year in prison, to avoid being taken away from his work.
Sammon, who says he has “a lot of other ideas” for future film projects though he’s focused on the “Codebreaker” distribution for now, says it’s important to recognize the historical accomplishments of the LGBT community and foster a more inclusive society. At the same time, he believes all people, regardless of sexual orientation, should admire Turing as a hero and a genius.
“I admire him very much because he was unconventional,” Sammon says. “I respect Turing for the fact of how unconventional he was, and he wasn’t afraid to be different. The sad part is society, at the time, didn’t have tolerance for differences.”
Leavitt describes Turing as a tragic hero we must learn from.
“His refusal to compromise or lie, under such circumstances, was nothing less than heroic — yet we must remember that, as a consequence of his heroism, he was erased from history for many years. Nor is the institutionalized hatred of gay men and lesbians any less of a reality today than it was in 1953. Even as we honor Alan Turing, we must be vigilant. We must not let ourselves lapse into complacency. This could happen again.”
The new monthly 90’s Flashback Drag Brunch premiered at Red Bear Brewing Co. on Sunday, April 26. Performers included Logan Stone, Tiffany D. Carter and Charlemagne Chateau.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
Celebrity News
Madonna makes rare club appearance in West Hollywood
Gay icon brought ‘Confessions II’ to The Abbey
A line of celebrities, “Drag Race” queens, influencers, media, and West Hollywood socialites lined the block around West Hollywood’s The Abbey, all clamoring to get into the invite-only celebration of owner Tristan Schukraft’s birthday. The rumor, which became verified gossip, was that Madonna, the Queen of Pop herself, would be taking the stage. Of course, the Blade had to be there.
With disco balls and Abbey statues covered in pink chiffon, it was clear. This party was a direct tie-in to Madonna’s much-anticipated “Confessions on A Dance Floor” album sequel, “Confessions II.” That night, the Abbey also unveiled its remodeled dance floor, a fitting collaboration.
The club was filled to capacity with a completely open bar, keeping the crowd liquored up. Go-go dancers in black leather collars and thongs lined the room, and celebrities that included Lilly Allen, Bebe Rexha, Tori Spelling, Julia Fox, Sam Asghari, Daniel Frenzese, Cynthia Bailey, Meredith Marks, Tom Daley, and more filled the VIP booths alongside World of Wonder personalities. It was a veritable who’s who of queer folk and allies.
The lights began to dim, the dance floor began to rumble, and Madonna graphics hit the screens. At around 1 am, it was time. Introduced by Addison Rae, Madonna grabbed the mic and started chanting, welcoming her “gays.” The venue resounded in thunderous chants of “freedom,” “mother,” and “bitch.”
Madonna was not there to perform. She was there to dance. She took the stage for about 15 minutes, keeping the crowd going with her naughty and fun commentary. There is no list that needs to be provided on how Madonna’s career has become part of queer culture. Going back to her dance music roots and going back to her gay fans is smart.
Released in 2005 (yes, it has been that long), “Confessions on a Dance Floor” was an instant hit, with four singles from the album being released. The album’s lead single, “Hung Up,” topped the charts in 41 countries with Billboard calling it the most successful dance song of the decade. The album had hints of 60s and 70s flair, mixed in with dance music prevalent at that time. The music still dominates at queer clubs across the globe.
Madonna knows we need a little queer joy; she also knows that fans miss the Madonna we all knew and loved. With the nation in such turbulence, we all need some comfort, and going back to a time when we felt safer and had more to celebrate just feels good. For the new album release, she has even partnered with Grindr for a limited edition vinyl release and exclusive behind-the-scenes content.
Her night at The Abbey presented snippets of her new music mixed in with some of her classics. The new material sounded good, sounded familiar in an exciting way, and shows that this diva has still got it.
“Confessions II” releases on July 3.
Theater
World premiere of ‘Everything, Devoured’ oozes queer energy
Nonbinary playwright Katherine Gwynn delivers ferocious ghost story
‘Everything, Devoured’
Through May 10
Nu Sass Productions
Sitar Arts Center
1724 Kalorama Road, N.W.
$25 (general admission)
Nusass.com
As if the world weren’t already hideous enough, Kore, the trans woman protagonist in nonbinary playwright Katherine Gwynn’s “Everything, Devoured,” wants to summon a demon to her humble Chicago apartment. While her friends think it’s just a bit of afterwork fun akin to reading horoscopes or Tarot cards, Kansas born Kore is dead serious.
Nu Sass Productions’ world premiere of Gwynn’s play oozes queer energy. Messages come across as if delivered by blow horn. It’s not afraid of expository dialogue or padding a singular moment of queer joy.
In a truly intimate black box at Sitar Arts Centers in Adams Morgan just down the block from Harris Teeter, scenic designer Simone Schneeberg deftly creates the generic flat whose ordinariness is only overshadowed by some weak attempts at individuality, but that’s all about to change.
Plans have been made, and Kore (June Dickson-Burke) has invited her nearest and dearest to her place.
Her nonbinary lesbian partner Julian (Tristan Evans) has cheap red wine and weed on the ready. Dinner is in the oven. Soon, lively trans masc bestie Dante (Selena Gill) arrives bearing a hostess gift – it’s the specially requested bag of pig blood, integral to the evening’s fun. In little time, the twentysomething friends will have painted a pentagram circled with salt in the middle of the living room floor. Candles are lit. Sacred words are spoken.
Shifts in light and sound by designers Vida Huang and Di Carey, respectively, signal contact with the beyond. Much to the friends’ surprise, they’ve successfully summoned a demon and it’s a real doozy: Ronald Reagan as demon drag queen.
Costumed in a corseted pinstripe suit adorned with a few Gaultier cones, the pronoun-less guest star from the underworld makes quite an entrance – a full-on lip sync to Madonna’s “Vogue” replete with huge flashing eyes, an evil smile and darting tongue.
Spectacularly played by O’Malley Steuerman (“actor, DRAGster, playwright, and producer from Baltimore”) Ronald Reagan as demon drag queen is lewd, taunting, and reads with the kind of sharp wit that puts other queens in the shade.
The entertainment doesn’t stop there. Soon, the demon is juggling provocative props (fleshy dildo, a baby doll, and a copy of Marx) or performing sock puppetry to a 1982 recording of journalist Lester Kinsolving asking about the “gay plague” to which Reagan’s Press Secretary Larry Speakes charmingly replies, “I don’t have it … do you?” That proved a real knee slapper in the pressroom.
Throughout the play’s early scenes, a young man sits unnoticed at Kore’s kitchen counter. Now and then, he comments with a disapproving harrumph or a distinctly gay one-liner. He’s privy to all, but the lady of the house is unaware of him until he joins the party. His name is Michael (Christian Harris). He died in 1989 and has been hanging around ever since.
Wry and undeniably spectral, Michael is the play’s link to queer past. He remembers the hurts and horrors of the AIDS epidemic, but not so much about the emergence of ‘genderqueer’ as an identity label, reflecting a shift toward a broader gender spectrum. That came later.
Without doubt, the uniformly queer cast is committed. They play their queer characters with authenticity, lending a realness to queer people’s valid concerns and fears in the current atmosphere. (For instance, anarchist/barista Dante accuses Julian of hiding out in their safe role of social worker at a nice nonprofit; and Kore speaks about the fear surrounding the Kansas bill making it illegal for transgender people to display their gender on a driver’s license.)
Based in Chicago, Gwynn has written a queer play with a punch; and prior to ever being staged, this new work was prestigiously named both a 2025 O’Neill Semi-Finalist as well as 2025 Bay Area Playwrights Festival Finalist.
Billed as a ferocious queer ghost story, “Everything, Devoured” doesn’t disappoint. In the hands of queer co-directors Tracey Erbacher and Ileana Blustein, Gwynn’s fevered yet thoughtful and quick paced but penetrating piece unfolds compellingly.
Intuitive staging and chemistry among players, especially two hander scenes involving Kore, display a quiet intensity that feels true to life. Other scenes bring out the anger, protectiveness and some divisiveness among the friends. Gwynn’s informed and powerful writing is brought to the fore.
Nu Sass Productions has been uplifting women and marginalized genders in all aspects of theater since 2009. The company’s two-part name stems from “Nu” (Chinese for woman) and “Sass” (sassy).
Its latest offering fits the bill and then some.
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