Johnny McKnight's gay wedding show

THERE have been no tabloid headlines recently to the effect that the National Theatre of Scotland is staging a show about a gay wedding. In fact, there has been a distinct absence of them.

• Johnny McKnight's new show, Little Johnny's Big Gay Wedding, is a sequel to his earlier hit shows. Picture: Complimentary

It's true. Little Johnny's Big Gay Wedding opens this week at Langside Halls on Glasgow's Southside, a popular wedding venue, with the tables decorated, the band ready to play and the inimitable Johnny McKnight in a big white frock. And one of the most intriguing things about it is the complete absence of controversy.

"I've always said it's a big gay wedding because I'm gay, it's not a show for gays," says McKnight, speaking on a break from rehearsals. "I'm a gay man – and a camp gay man – so of course if I'm making a show about a wedding, it will be a Big Gay Wedding!"

The show, by his company Random Accomplice, in partnership with the NTS, is the sequel to his two earlier hits, Little Johnny's Big Gay Adventure and Little Johnny's Big Gay Musical.

"I think it's great that nobody's making an issue about the fact that it's a gay wedding. I think it shows how we're moving along in terms of the gay movement. The fact that the National Theatre is doing it speaks volumes."

Our conversation flips between a discussion of how societal views of sexual orientation have changed and gossip about wedding dress shopping ("We got some strange looks, but what was more gutting for me was that I was in the plus-size section – I'm a plus-size bride!") and the finer points of tableware ("In rehearsal the other day, I found myself saying, 'Could we get pink stitching in the black tablecloths?' This is how it starts. I'm recognising that I have a big shade of bridezilla running right through me.")

McKnight, 32, is a versatile writer and director as well as performer. His last project was to direct Douglas Maxwell's Promises Promises, his next is to play King Ludwig of Bavaria in Andy Arnold's production of Valhalla at the Tron. He is an acclaimed writer of pantomimes, and has been hailed as the vanguard of a new generation of pantomime dames.

His first autobiographical show, Little Johnny's Big Gay Adventure, started our as a low-budget experiment at the Arches during Glasgay! 2005. It travelled to the Prague Festival, and did a small tour. The sequel, Little Johnny's Big Gay Musical, sold out at Glasgay! two years later, went to the Edinburgh Fringe and toured Scotland. All three parts of the trilogy are directed by McKnight's collaborator in Random Accomplice, producer/director Julie Brown.

The success of the first two shows proved that stories which had been aimed initially at gay men could have a wider appeal. "Out on tour, the audience was predominantly women, of which a good 40 per cent were over the age of 50. What was interesting was the filthier the show got, the more they loved it."

Little Johnny's Big Gay Wedding moves the concept on, making use of the platform offered by the NTS. It is likely to be seen less as a "gay show" than as a piece of site-specific non-traditional theatre. The audience is encouraged to dress as wedding guests and will be seated at tables, though there is no further audience participation.

The show will explore and exploit wedding clichs: loopy relatives, family feuds, the over-long speech delivered by a best man who has had a bit too much Dutch courage. These are already so familiar that a straight wedding show might seem pass. But a gay wedding puts a fresh spin on the genre.

McKnight doesn't have a point to prove, he's just happened on a great idea for a piece of theatre. "There were always two possible finales, either Little Johnny's Big Gay Wedding or Little Johnny on Ice. I did think it would be amazing if we could do a show on an ice rink, that's the only possible way we could camp it up any further. But I can't ice skate, my balance is terrible!

"I've never made a show that is politically about the fact that I'm gay, but I do believe that the politics are in the personal. The fact that we're making a show that's called Little Johnny's Big Gay Wedding is political in itself, regardless of whether it's a fun night out and a piece of entertainment."

Even in his lifetime, he has seen attitudes shift. "When I was wee there was one person who was gay in the town. Coming out to me felt like a huge deal, whereas I know people now aged 15 or 16 who are really comfortable being open about their sexuality because they see it as being fluid.

"In the 1970s and 1980s, sexuality felt fearful, it was a big taboo, there was a lot of stigma attached to what the perception of gay was, and the fear was greater because it was never talked about. When Queer as Folk first came on the telly, it was quite shocking, quite a big deal.

"We had Larry Grayson in the 1970s, but nobody discussed the fact that he was a gay man. Now we've got Graham Norton, who is a gay man. And people like (former rugby captain] Gareth Thomas coming out, there is a shift, though there's still a huge stigma in sports connected to sexuality."

There is still a lot of work to do, he adds, citing the example of the two men who were recently jailed for 14 years in Malawi after celebrating their engagement (they later received a presidential pardon). And he expresses concern about Conservative Theresa May as Minister for Women and Equality. "She's voted against every homosexual bill that's been passed in the last ten years – I am slightly fearful about what the future might hold."

In fact, Little Johnny's Big Gay Wedding is less about the issue of a gay wedding, or even about gay relationships, than using the wedding framework to explore questions of family. As well as the ample potential for storytelling afforded by barmy aunties and a Mafioso grandmother, he's looking at the positive side of his family's legacy.

"As you get into your thirties, you realise, my mum and dad have been married for 32 years – what's the secret or the lesson to learn in that? The older I get, the more I think I'm turning into my mum and my dad. I think in another life my dad would do what I do. He's a brilliant storyteller. I think my mum would probably be a singer if she could. I see where I get it from.

"You do pass so much down to your family, whether you know it or not, including your mistakes, the best and the worst of you. It's about learning from it, rather than just quoting (Philip Larkin's poem]: 'They f*** you up, your mum and dad, they do not mean to, but they do'. It's a celebration of family."

He says he's not worried about a backlash from his nearest and dearest because the stories he tells are "life-affirming".

"It's not therapy, I've found the punchline to the pain – if there was pain. It's entertainment. It's nothing I wouldn't tell in a pub – and they'll all have their own stories they'll be telling about me. The only difference is" – he laughs a big laugh – "I'm telling it to more people!"

Does he hope one day to tie the knot for real in the same way? "Before doing this show, I would have said yes, 100 per cent. But planning this, even though it's a theatrical version, has almost put me off. There's so much planning that even the sanest of people ends up going slightly unhinged. Doing the seating plan took me three days!"

• Little Johnny's Big Gay Wedding opens tonight at Langside Halls, Glasgow, and continues until 12 June. www.nationaltheatrescotland.com