[2][3] The company’s first production, Crying Celibate Tears by John Roman Baker, was performed as part of the Brighton Festival Fringe.
It was an instant hit with public and critics alike and the company was invited to perform the following year as part of the main Brighton Festival programme at the Marlborough Theatre.
In 1998 Aputheatre's two founders, John Roman Baker and Rod Evan moved to Amsterdam, where a creative relationship was established with COC Nederland, a Dutch organization for LGBT men and women.
[1] The company initially developed four strong plays which explored the sub-culture of prostitution among young East European men living in Amsterdam.
The play explored the attraction of the far right within gay subculture and was inspired in part by the assassination earlier that year of Dutch Populist politician Pim Fortuyn.
[9] The play highlighted the policy of police to raid gay bars on Amsterdam's Paardenstrat and then arrest, incarcerate and deport young men, with no legal representation.