It is a pleasant enough way to spend forty minutes on a wet Saturday afternoon, walking around town holding hands with a succession of people of undetermined sexuality. Conversation could, as the creator of the piece Rosana Cade said at the outset, come from either of us, or not come at all. As we set off under a big black umbrella, Rosana explained that she liked holding hands with her ex-girlfriend in public, but the effect that had on the public in Glasgow was less appealing. So how do I feel about walking around with her as my partner? I feel fine. We do a quick turn round a male gay sex shop, stop and read some ‘proud’ graffiti and agree that Brighton is a wonderfully liberal place to live.

That’s the nub of the problem with this piece. As I am passed on from person to person, there are no hostile glances, no raised eyebrows. In Ipswich and in Cork, the effect on the participant must have been far more profound.

The journey is a somewhat random stroll through parts of Brighton; arcades feature but without an explanation of why, and there are a couple of stops to look at our reflections in windows. At one point, the enigmatic Marta asks me to close my eyes and walk for a while, listening to the noises of the street. That’s the only piece of instruction I get on the journey and I am not sure what it is meant to make me feel. For most of the time the walk is a series of conversations, mainly instigated by me. A couple of the guides, some of whom were young students, were very nervous and their hands shook in mine. It was almost as if I was the performer here. I felt that some kind of narrative should have been threaded through the experience rather than just walking, particularly if the main idea behind it – of facing a hostile or curious public – is missing.

It ended on the beach, waves murderously high, with B.A. from Chicago. She has been in Brighton for four months and is happy as a bird can be. We paddle. She is warm and open and lovely. They have all been nice people, if rather uncertain of their role in this. I wonder what they thought of me?