British producer faces two years in Ugandan jail for putting on play about being gay

• David Cecil was denied bail after police confiscated his passport
• Play was performed just eight time in small theatres
• British poetry student who wrote it has not been contacted by police

Facing two years: Briton David Cecil is awaiting trial for allegedly staging a play without permission

The British producer of a play about being gay in Uganda is in jail pending his trial on charges that he had the work performed without official permission.
David Cecil appeared in court yesterday charged with 'disobeying lawful orders' from the Uganda Media Council, which says he staged 'The River and the Mountain' in Uganda's capital last month despite orders to the contrary.
Cecil's lawyer, Francis Onyango, said his client was not released on bail because his passport had been confiscated by the police.
Cecil told The Associated Press that the play, whose main character is a gay businessman who is finally killed by his own employees, was performed eight times at little-known theaters in Kampala last month.
The play, a first for Uganda, was praised by gay rights activists who said it was 'revolutionary' in the way it challenged common thinking about gays.
But the play failed to make it to Uganda's national theatre, where producers rejected the script.
Homosexuals are highly stigmatized in Uganda, where in 2010 a politician with the ruling party introduced a bill proposing the death penalty for what he called 'aggravated homosexuality'. 

Standing firm: Cecil claims he has been victimised because he has become the public face of the play, which has homosexual themes

The bill, which is currently being examined, has been condemned by some world leaders. Its author says he still believes it will be passed one day.
Cecil, who faces two years in jail if convicted, said he was singled out for legal action because he had become the play's 'public face,' the man who printed posters and sent out invitations. The play was written by a British poetry student named Beau Hopkins, who has not been targeted by the police.
The play takes a tragicomic view of the condition of homosexuals in Uganda, and its playwright and producers said this is the best way to look at things.
The play's main character is a young businessman who loses friends after revealing his sexuality, then falls victim to machete-wielding colleagues who are stunned that 'a good man' can be gay.
The gay character's mother stages an epic but losing battle to 'cure' him of his homosexuality, taking him to everyone from a Christian pastor to a private dancer.
Despite the praise it won from campaigners, Cecil said at the play's premiere in Kampala that he did not believe the drama was 'a magic pill' against raging homophobia in the East African country.