Rum, Sodomy, and the Noose

This LARP designed by Laurie Innes is about queering history, illicit sexual subcultures, repression, and the diversity of expressions of companionship. Rum, Sodomy, and the Noose explores the interior sexual landscape of the men of a Napoleonic-era British warship the HMS Africaine. A culture of sodomy and sexual acts has evolved on board. Sodomy carries the death penalty, and this LARP will end with two characters being executed. The players will explore the landscape of 'lust and risk' that leads up to these deaths, but the focus of the larp is not death, but rather the messy, complicated relationships of the characters.

The larp features exclusively male characters, but the players need not identify as male. It also features sexual themes, but involves no acting out of these sexual encounters. It is about queering history by allowing the players to develop a group of characters with wildly varying interior sexual worlds, and see how they create a shared culture. We then see how this culture is fractured when society pulls back on the reins.

Content Warnings: The sexual landscape that this larp explores (though steering clear of abuse or rape) would not be considered ‘healthy’ by modern standards, and thus this larp is unsuitable for people triggered by unequal power relationships or abuse.