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"Just months after the equal marriage bill passed its second reading in the House of Commons, Jamie Lloyd and Alexi Kaye Campbell&amp;#039;s timely 2008 play The Pride was revived on the West End. Meanwhile in Russia, gay rights have come under increasing attack, prompting calls from Stephen Fry and others for the UK to pull out of next year&amp;#039;s Winter Olympics.  &amp;gt; Hayley Atwell interview: &amp;#039;Some gay men are still living in exile&amp;#039; Below, star of The Pride Hayley Atwell tells Digital Spy why she thinks that love, not aggression is the most productive way of boosting gay rights around the world. &amp;quot;It felt very timely, very relevant,&amp;quot; Atwell said of the play&amp;#039;s revival coinciding with legal progress towards marriage equality. &amp;quot;It felt like there was a responsibility for us to tell something really important that a lot of people would relate to. &amp;quot;That&amp;#039;s why we bring on the banners at the end saying &amp;#039;To Russia With Love&amp;#039;. People respond so well to it, because it roots the play in something that&amp;#039;s timely and about now.&amp;quot;   Of how to engage with Russia on the issue, she added: &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s a very difficult one. You have lots of different people who are coming up with ideas of what will work and what won&amp;#039;t. &amp;quot;The important thing for us was that these banners say &amp;#039;To Russia With Love&amp;#039;, rather than it being reductive or aggressive. &amp;quot;When we went to the protests in Whitehall during the rehearsals, some of the banners were very negative and aggressive against Putin. &amp;quot;We as a company didn&amp;#039;t really see how that would do anything. It would be counter-productive. You have to face these issues with love, with compassion and with understanding.&amp;quot;  Atwell continued: &amp;quot;I think that is a lot proactive and a lot more creative. I&amp;#039;m not sure I believe in the idea of pulling out of the Winter Olympics. &amp;quot;I think greater things can be achieved by simpler acts of kindness and compassion and symbols and suggestions rather than battling war on war. I don&amp;#039;t see how that could ever, ever end up doing any good.&amp;quot; Atwell said of the production: &amp;quot;This is the sort of play that I think younger audiences are going to love. It speaks to them, there&amp;#039;s plenty of humour in it. &amp;quot;There&amp;#039;s plenty to shock and to talk about and to ignite their own feelings, and also talking to young people about their sexual identity and coming out in their teens and their 20s.  &amp;quot;That&amp;#039;s one of the saddest things for me about Russia. That there&amp;#039;s going to be a lost generation of kids who are actively told that any feelings they have for the same sex are wrong. &amp;quot;They&amp;#039;re living in something we had 50 years ago, which is an absolute sense of lost sexual identity and guilt and shame for loving someone, I think that&amp;#039;s utterly tragic. &amp;quot;One of the things that the play does really well, when we have young people come in, is it says to discover your own identity - no matter who you are - is really tough. But it&amp;#039;s okay and it&amp;#039;ll be alright.  &amp;quot;There&amp;#039;s a hopeful message in it, which I think will be very comforting to some people who are battling with those issues.&amp;quot;  Of how plays like The Pride can help the fight for gay rights, Atwell said: &amp;quot;I think the theatre fights for every day. To work in the theatre is a privilege, because it&amp;#039;s about humanity. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s about opening up our minds to understanding each other and the differences between each other and each other&amp;#039;s cultures and each other&amp;#039;s tribes&amp;#039; cultures, each other&amp;#039;s neighbours and each other&amp;#039;s family life.&amp;quot; She added: &amp;quot;That&amp;#039;s why I love theatre and why I think it&amp;#039;s an important part of our culture and our heritage and our tradition. &amp;quot;We still have so, so far to go before we&amp;#039;re truly able to confront the prejudice that everyone has within themselves.&amp;quot; The Pride runs at Trafalgar Studios until November 9. All Monday tickets are \u00C2\u00A315, and half of these have been made available through the Ambassador Theatre Group Creative Learning Department outreach scheme. Day seats are also available at \u00C2\u00A310 for all performances. Special events being held around the performances include an Alexi Kaye Campbell Masterclass (October 21), Late Night Fridays featuring the London Gay Men&amp;#039;s Chorus (October 4), 4 Poofs and a Piano (October 11) and Scott Capurro (October 18) and a Stonewall Gala Evening (October 9), with full details on The Pride website. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/showbiz/news/a520313/hayley-atwell-on-russia-and-gay-rights-aggression-wont-help/>