Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black’s new play illuminates California’s Proposition 8 trial

Simply called 8, a new play written by Dustin Lance Black about the Proposition 8 trial will be performed in a staged reading on Broadway this fall then produced at several universities.

The New York Times reports that the play consists mostly of verbatim dialogue and statements from the trial transcript as well as Black’s own observations from sitting in the courtroom most days and interviewing people on both sides of the case.

“One of my hopes about the trial was to get the opposition in court, hands raised swearing to tell the truth, and have the world see the opposition called to account for going on TV saying gay people harm children, harm families,” he told the newspaper. “Since the trial itself wasn’t heard or seen, I wanted to get that story out another way.”

He added: “I mined the best arguments on both sides, trying to capture everything on their side that was a winning point and anything on our side that was a winning point.”

Roughly a dozen people from the trial are portrayed as characters, including Theodore B. Olson and David Boies, the lawyers for the two gay couples who sued California over the ban; Charles J. Cooper, the lead defense counsel; Kristin M. Perry and Sandra B. Stier, a lesbian couple who were among the plaintiffs; and the judge, Vaughn R. Walker of the Federal District Court for the Northern District of California.