THEGAYUK

Author: Greg Mitchell

  • REVIEW | Cirque du Soleil: Kooza at the Royal Albert Hall

    ★★★★ | Cirque du Soleil: Kooza at the Royal Albert Hall

    Founded in 1984, Cirque du Soleil has been around so long now that finding something fresh to come up with in each new show must be a major headache. That they succeed as well as they do is a tribute to their creative team, which is still guided by Guy Laliberte, one of the founders.

    Their show, Kooza, which premiered in Montreal in 2007 is receiving its UK premiere in the Royal Albert Hall, the scene of many of Cirque du Soleil’s successes, the hall’s Victorian rococo splendour and circular shape particularly suited to their shows. In this instance the stunning set had the look of a massive Faberge egg, which opened to reveal its magic and secrets.

    According to the lavish programme booklet Kooza tells the story of the innocent, a naïve but charming clown striving to find his own place in the world, and as usual it is the clowns who tell that story whilst linking the various acts together. They have their own charm, but there’s no doubt it’s the daredevil acts that the audience have come to see, and as usual they do not disappoint.

    For me the highlight of the evening was the death defying Wheel of Death, a spinning contraption with two empty drums on either side, in which, and on which, two male acrobats (Jimmy Ibarra and Ronald Solis) perform seemingly impossible feats, running and leaping as if the spinning of the drums was little more than a paltry distraction. Almost equally thrilling were the high trapeze antics of Yulia Korosteleva, who leaped and flew through the air with insouciant ease.

    In contrast, we had a trio of impossibly bendy female contortionists and a man (Yao Deng Bo) who proceeded to balance himself on one hand on a huge tower of chairs which he constructed before our eyes. As a display of strength, concentration and accuracy, it was utterly mesmerising.

    That said, I don’t think this show was quite on a par with Varekai, which I saw at the Royal Albert Hall some years ago, and the finale of which will stay in my mind for a very long time to come, so 4 rather than 5 stars for me.

    Kooza plays at the Royal Albert Hall till February 19.

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Treasure Island, the Curse of the Pearl Necklace, Above The Stag

    Well it’s almost Christmas and the silly season has started, and what better way to spend a couple of silly hours than at the Above the Stag theatre in Vauxhall at their yearly pantomime Treasure Island and the Curse of the Pearl Necklace?

    Though this is the first of their pantos I have seen, over the six years since their first one in their old home in Victoria, they have played to sell-out audiences each year and it’s easy to see why. Definitely not the show for the family outing with mum, dad, grandma and the little ones, this is the show you creep out to enjoy with your mates.

    I’ll have to confess pantomime is not really my thing. I usually go out of my way to avoid it, but maybe if they were more like this one I’d go more often. The script by Jon Bradfield and Martin Hopper abounds in witty one-liners that come so fast and furious it’s almost impossible to keep up. They have retained most of the pantomime traditions that we have grown up with, and the audience catches on quickly, shouting out “behind you”, “oh yes you are” and joining in the community singing with gusto.

    Another of the panto traditions they have retained is the character of the dame, here in the guise of Jim Hawkins’s mother, Sally and Philip Lawrence gives quite the stand-out performance of the night. Whether it be delivering the naughty dialogue, joking with the audience or delivering the odd ad lib, he is the master (mistress?) of every situation, and frequently had us all in fits of laughter. Hugh O’Donnel as Ethel, the Merman (get it?), who acted as our narrator and guide, was equally hilarious, delivering all his lines with his tongue firmly lodged in one cheek. In a fairly large cast, though, absolutely no one let the side down.

    In the past I have been known to criticise Andrew Beckett’s direction (in The Gay Naked Play and You Should Be So Lucky) but here he is obviously in his element. My problem in the other plays was that too much of the action was played out front, encouraging the cast to mug too much to the audience, but that is exactly what is required of pantomime, and here it works splendidly. Aside from a section at the beginning of the second act, which flags slightly, the swift-moving action holds one’s attention throughout and moves seamlessly from one scene to another.

    One should also mention the superb set by David Shields and Daniel Johnson’s excellent musical direction.

    If, like me, you can be a bit allergic to the usual Christmas fare, then this irreverent, naughty, adult orientated gay romp is definitely for you.

    Treasure Island and the Curse of the Pearl Necklace plays until January 10 at Above the Stag and I’d advise you to book early, as it will no doubt sell out completely.

  • THEATRE REVIEW | DV8: JOHN, The Lyttleton Theatre

    ★★★★★ | DV8: JOHN, The Lyttleton Theatre

    Lloyd Newson’s DV8 Physical Theatre Company have been presenting innovative dance pieces for the best part of three decades and have won a plethora of awards. I wouldn’t be in the least bit surprised if their latest piece, John, now playing at the Lyttleton Theatre were to bring them a whole lot more.

    The programme note tells us that the piece we are seeing is not what Newson had originally planned, a work about assisted suicide. The emphasis changed when a close friend of Newson’s died unexpectedly, and he decided he needed to do a work about love and life rather than death. They interviewed several men for the project, but when John came into their office, it became clear that the new work would predominantly follow John’s story, and so the present piece was born.

    It starts as a monologue about John’s traumatic council estate childhood under the shadow of a violent, rapist father. Anna Fleischle’s ingenious, revolving set is put to brilliant use as characters move from one room to another. At first movement is fairly natural, but it becomes more stylised as the story evolves, though always as a response to speech. Rather than being set to music, in this case, the movement is a reflection of language and the words being spoken.

    Later the set doubles for the gay sauna where much of the second part of the piece is played out, perfect in its depiction of the endless cruising from sauna to steam room to restrooms. Much of the choreography is unbelievably complex. In the group scenes, you feel that if one member of the company were to misplace a foot or a hand, then the whole delicate balance would be destroyed. That never happens of course, and one of the joys of this production is seeing the way bodies fuse together, meld into one and then just as easily drift apart, something of a Newson trademark.

    Endlessly fascinating, but ultimately incredibly moving, it not only examines John’s reasons for having sex with men, but also unflinchingly examines why men may or may not take risks with their sexual health. Their stories are told without judgement, without prejudice.

    I won’t give anything away, but the ending with John caught once more alone on the stage was incredibly moving. It runs for one hour and twenty minutes without an interval, but time had gone so fast, it was hard to believe it was actually the end.

    A true collaboration, one should also mention the excellent lighting of Richard Godin and the sound design of Gareth Fry. Every single one of the performers should be commended for their commitment, for their skill, and for the beauty of the movement. So too should Lloyd Newson, who has yet again come up with a starkly original and thought-provoking piece of theatre.

    John is on now at the Lyttleton Theatre and almost half the tickets for each performance will be £15 as part of the Travelex Theatre Scheme

    On 9 December John will be broadcast live to over 550 UK cinemas and many more worldwide as part of National Theatre Live. Details at www.ntlive.com

    Runs until 13th January 2015

  • THEATRE REVIEW | The Curing Room

    ★★★★ | The Curing Room

    “It made the recent Globe production of Titus Andronicus look like a teddy bear’s picnic!” And indeed over 90 minutes we had been subjected to a deluge of blood, guts and gore, couple with full frontal male nudity the likes of which I have never seen before on the stage.

    David Ian Lee’s The Curing Room throws seven Soviet soldiers into the empty cellar of a monastery, stripped of all belongings and their clothes. Abandoned by their captors, and left without food, the men resort finally to murder and cannibalism in order to survive. The play asks questions about how we redefine ourselves in extreme circumstances, how the constraints of normal civilised society and military rank cling to us, or don’t.

    The play is something of a tour de force for the seven brilliant actors, who literally bare all before the audience. Director Joao De Sousa is unflinching in his depiction of cannibalism and there is, as I said earlier, a lot of blood. My companion spent much of the latter part of the evening with his head turned away from the stage. This play is definitely not for the faint hearted, and if your only reason for going is a prurient desire to see seven men naked, well you soon get used to that. The gore is harder to cope with.

    It would be invidious to pick out any one of the actors. They all work as a close-knit team, and all, without exception, give excellent performances. De Sousa’s pacing is brilliant, and I was gripped throughout. Once away from the theatrical brilliance of it all, though, a few minor doubts crept in about the writing and about the play itself. For much of the play, the characters come across as mere cyphers, as representatives of certain types; the stiff upper lip captain, the honourable senior lieutenant, the slightly simple young private, the old retainer and so on. This could be the reason I found it ultimately less involving than I should have. Though the horror of what unfolds before you certainly draws you in, ultimately ones cares little about the fate of these soldiers as individuals.

    None the less, The Curing Room is well worth seeing if you have the stomach for it. I doubt we will see anything like it again for some time.

    The Curing Room is at the Pleasance Theatre until November 9th.

  • THEATRE REVIEW | The Tempest, Waterloo East Theatre

    ★★★ | The Tempest

    The cover of the programme for Waterloo East Theatre’s new production of The Tempest shows Big Ben toppling under a flood of water. As we entered the theatre, Ariel was suspended in a hammock above the audience. Whilst on stage, various detritus that may have been salvaged from a flood was scattered around, Miranda sitting reading in an empty bath, and Prospero, seated on a crate, quietly talking to her. The press release tells us that the year is 2080, but no other allusion to the year or to London was made, and as the text continued to refer to the courts of Milan and Naples, I doubt many would have got the reference anyway.

    The play opened in a burst of energy, with passengers on the ship that is soon to be caught up in the eponymous tempest, dancing and drinking and generally making merry before the storm disperses them on Propero’s island, which is when Prospero starts to have his fun, directing events almost like a puppeteer. Indeed many have sought to find something of Shakespeare himself in the character.

    Sarah Redmond’s production was swift moving, managing seamlessly the transitions from high to low comedy, from darkness to light. I’m not quite sure I understood why Miranda and Ferdinand’s marriage should have been celebrated with a lap dance, and I would have welcomed a little more of “the sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not”, but the score did provide us with “a thousand twangling instruments”. In fact, music was used most effectively throughout.

    Would that the text had been delivered with a deal more musicality too, for poetry was somewhat lacking, except in the performance of Guy Wolf, who gave us a Ferdinand of charm and innocence, bringing out both the humour and the beauty of the poetry. It was there too in Chipo Kureya’s mercurial Ariel, and I will not easily forget the radiant happiness that spread over her countenance when Prospero finally set her free. Rebecca Hazel caught well Miranda’s wonder at a “brave new world”, if a touch too lasciviously at times. Though there is no doubt a venal side to the attraction between Miranda and Ferdinand, it should still have a childlike innocence about it, which is exactly where Wolf was so convincing.

    I’ll admit that I often have a bit of a problem with Shakespeare’s mechanicals and The Tempest is no different from any of his other plays in that respect. Here their scenes were managed as well as they can be, I suppose, ably led by Matthew Harper’s boorishly bullish Caliban, but still nobody was rolling in the aisles, as presumably they would have been in Shakespeare’s time.

    Over all presides the problematic figure of Prospero, and for me the performance of Tom Keller revealed a major problem at the heart of the play. Admittedly, there is not much to like about Prospero for the first half. He is cruel to both Ariel and Caliban, and to Ferdinand, at times dismissive of his daughter. This makes him a difficult character to like, though he redeems himself in the last two acts. Prospero does have a good deal to be angry about, but to succeed in the part, the actor needs to bring out his benevolence as soon as possible. Tom Keller was pretty irascible from the word go, and remained in a pretty bad mood throughout, his delivery of the text unmusical and perfunctory.

    The Tempest plays at Waterloo East Theatre until October 26th.

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Hello Norma Jeane, Kings Head Theatre, Islington

    ★★★★ | Hello Norma Jeane, Kings Head Theatre, Islington

    The year is 2003. Joe has jetted off to Los Angeles to find and bring back to England his 76 year old grandmother, Lynne, who has escaped from the home she was living in and holed herself up in a motel in Hollywood.

    When he finds her, she tells him that she is there, because the world is in dire need of some good news, and that news is that she is about to reveal that she is in fact Marilyn Monroe, that she faked her own death, and that she has been living in obscurity in Essex ever since. Is she really Marilyn or is she just fantasising? Will Joe believe here? Will we? And does it really matter one way or the other?

    Dylan Costello’s amusing and often very touching play cleverly keeps us guessing. As he adds layer upon layer of detail to his tale, we are buffered one way and the other, one minute believing Lynne really is Marilyn, and the next absolutely sure that she isn’t, and we are kept guessing till the end. Ultimately though the play is not about guessing games, but about the nature of love, unconditional love; the genuine love between Joe and his grandmother, contrasted with that of Joe and his abusive, cheating boyfriend back in London. And maybe when Lynne jets off to Hollywood, she does so in the hope of making Joe see sense, of Joe finding his true self instead of living in the shadow of his boyfriend.

    At the play’s centre is a performance of warmth and humour from Vicki Michelle, known worldwide for the role of Yvette in the TV sitcom Allo Allo. But this is no star turn; Michelle is one part of a talented team. Her relationship with Jamie Hutchins’s sweet, rather gauche Joe is beautifully charted, as their scenes together veer from high comedy to touching drama. Farrell Hegarty differentiates nicely between the superstar Marilyn and the young Norma Jeane, and has a great comic turn as TV hostess Carla Carlyle. Handsome Arron Blake completes an excellent cast as budding actor Bobby and Matthew Gould’s direction is unobtrusively right from beginning to end.

    Hello Norma Jeane was one of five winners in Chicago based Pride Films and Plays’ Great Play Contest in 2011, and it is to be hoped that it will have a life beyond its present short season at the Kings Head in Islington.

    At the moment it is playing Sundays only at 3.15 and 7.15 until November 2nd at the Kings Head Theatre, Islington.

  • THEATRE REVIEW: You Should Be So Lucky, Above The Stag

    ★★★ | You Should Be So Lucky, Above The Stag

    For their opening play of the new season, Above The Stag have chosen a madcap comedy from the pen of Charles Busch, a New York writer and drag artist, who also played the male lead in the original New York production of the play.

    A modern day Cinderella story, the play concerns Chris, a shy and slightly eccentric electrologist who accidentally electrocutes and kills his customer, the elderly Mr Rosenberg, unexpectedly inheriting Rosenberg’s millions. This sets off a chain of crazy events, including appearing on a TV reality chat show, under the guidance of his fairy godfather Mr Rosenberg, who returns as a ghost to take care of his surrogate son, and make sure his wishes are carried out in the face of his vengeful daughter disputing the will.

    Apart from one brief scene in the TV studio, the entire action takes place in the one room of Chris’s Greenwich Village apartment, a very clever and elaborate set by David Shields. Busch is a seasoned writer, his writing reminiscent of 1930s screwball comedies, and the laughs come thick and fast.

    I had my reservations, though and these were much the same as those I had with last year’s Gay Naked Play, also directed by Andrew Beckett. Too much of it was played on one frenetic level, with a surfeit of mugging to the audience, and an energy level far in excess of what was needed in this small house. Chris Woodley’s Christopher started well, and in his first couple of scenes with Colin Appleby’s warmly gentle Mr Rosenberg, created a touching portrait of a slightly lost young man, but as events got more and more out of control, so too did his performance. Stacy Sobieski was on firmer ground as Christopher’s completely over the top drama queen sister, Polly, as was Ellen Vernieks as Rosenberg’s daughter, Lenore, but they too would benefit from reining things in occasionally, as could Lucas Livesy’s Walter.

    The role of the TV host Wanda Wang is being shared by several actors. On the night I attended we had a nicely nuanced performance from Ishani Basu.

    Maybe the pacing will settle down a bit as the play gets further into its run. An entertaining evening none the less.

  • So Why Are So Many Gay Men Opposed To PrEP?

    So why are so many gay men adamantly opposed to PrEP, the daily dose of the anti-retroviral drug Truvada, which is at least 90% effective at protecting against HIV? Indeed, according to a recent iPrEx open-label extension (iPrEx OLE), to date the largest demonstration project of HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis, daily taking of Truvada could be as much as 99% effective.

    This is a question I’ve been asking myself quite a lot recently, especially after reading some negative articles in the press and one, by Joshua Vaughan here in TheGayUK a couple of weeks ago, which was actually inaccurate on several points.

    About nine months ago, the GUM clinic I regularly attend (the Working Men’s Project at St Mary’s in Paddington) offered me the chance to be part of the PROUD study, which examines the impact on gay men of using Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP), and I jumped at the chance, not only because I wanted to do my bit for the community, but because it offered me an extra level of protection against HIV, regardless of whether I was using condoms or not.

    First of all let me tackle some of the issues and downright inaccuracies in Vaughan’s article. Rather than rely on hearsay and prejudice, I spoke to Professor Sheena McCormack, the lead doctor for the PROUD study, who is also Consultant Physician at 56 Dean Street.
    It states that there has been a significant drop in HIV transmission rates between 2001 and 2012, but though this is true globally, there has been no drop in the rates amongst gay men, and there is evidence to suggest that, on the contrary, they are rising. This may have something to do with an increase in the number of gay men presenting themselves for testing, but it is worrying none the less. Vaughan also enumerates at length the terrible side effects which can accompany the taking of Truvada, but fails to mention that those that suffer these side effects constitute only a small proportion of those taking the drug. A recent large study of over 4000 HIV negative men and women in Kenya and Uganda, found that there were very few significant differences when compared to placebo, and only a minority (less than 10%) of HIV positive people taking it in combination with a third drug discontinue because of side effects due to Truvada. Anyone taking Truvada for PrEP who suffers side effects can simply stop taking it, but so far, according to Professor McCormack, only one person has stopped because of problems with the medication.
    Vaughan states “The WHO believe that medicating ALL homosexual men will provide an additional method of preventing infection. Along with condom use and regular testing. But activists have suggested that introducing government mandated antiretroviral would discourage the use of condoms, currently the best method to prevent the transmission of sexually transmitted infections. Resulting in an increase of other sexually transmitted infections such as gonorrhea, chlamydia and hepatitis in the gay community.” First of all, the WHO is not saying that all gay men should be given PrEP, but that they should be offered it, which is slightly different. Nor has any of the data surrounding possible increases in other sexually transmitted diseases been analysed yet, though the Partners PrEP study suggested no significant change in behaviour.
    Regarding the cost, I have no idea from where Vaughan plucks his figure of £10,000 per person per year, but Professor McCormack assures me this is far beyond the mark. Though it would be difficult to put an exact figure on it, because of the National Health’s buying power and their ability to get large discounts, the figure is more likely to be in the range of £5,000. Already it is being offered in the private sector for around £500 per month. He says this is a lot of money to spend on a preventable disease, but that is exactly what the medication is for, and, with a 90% (and possibly even a 99%) success rate, it actually makes it more successful than condoms.
    To quote from a United States C.D.C. study of 2013, “We are also unclear about to what extent condoms actually prevent HIV transmission in anal sex. This last fact may seem surprising, given that condoms have been recommended since the mid-1980s as the only effective HIV prevention method for gay men who have anal sex. In fact, there is only one large study in gay men, dating from 1989. In this study of 2914 gay men, HIV incidence among those who said they used condoms 100% of the time was 70% lower than in men who did not use them at all. There has been one small study in the era of antiretroviral treatment (ART), which found an efficacy of approximately 75%.”
    Vaughan states that introducing the drugs could run the risk of the virus evolving immunity to the drug, but this is in fact only likely in cases where a participant is seroconverting when they start taking the medication. It can also be a problem for HIV positive people who have a gap in their treatment, this being a particular problem in parts of Africa where people have to travel miles to get their medication and end up missing doses.
    So, given so many positives, how can offering PrEP be a bad thing, and why is there so much resistance within the gay community? Professor McCormack is mystified. “This is a good thing,” she tells me, adding that most of her colleagues that work in Sub-Saharan Africa (who are friends and mainly female and straight!) queried why WHO did not specifically mention women in the recent consolidated guidance. And indeed we ought not to ignore the needs of other communities that have been shown to benefit from PrEP, including intravenous drug users, and heterosexual men and women.
    We can bang on as much as we like about better, more targeted sex education in schools, but there is little to suggest it would have a major impact on the epidemic. It has had little effect on unwanted pregnancies, even though no-one leaves school without knowing where to go for contraception. It may be that the UK’s problems come down to an age-old embarrassment about talking about sex. In countries like the Netherlands and Scandinavia, where they have traditionally been more open and matter of fact about sex, teenage pregnancies and STD infection rates amongst young people are far lower. The problem could be more cultural than anything else.
    Coincidentally, I think that most of the resistance to PrEP boils down to shame about admitting to enjoying condom free sex. In the study on condom use cited above that figure of 70% was amongst gay men who said they used condoms 100% of the time. My italics. How many of those were actually lying, or conveniently forgetting that time when the condom broke, or they indulged in dipping, or actually didn’t use a condom at all because they were drunk or high?

    Gay sex itself has been about shame for a long time. It wasn’t that long ago that it became decriminalised here and in most Western countries, and in many countries around the world it is still against the law. After it was decriminalised, there was a brief period when gay sex was fun and the only risk it carried was the possibility of picking up an easily treatable STD. Then in the 1980s it became shameful again as we discovered it was one of the transmission routes for a deadly disease.

    Many people died because of it, and it took a lot of time, and a lot of campaigning, for gay men to take on the safer sex message. Before that time condoms were for preventing babies tout court. No gay man would ever consider using one, but, as our brothers started to die around us, we realised it was either put a rubber on it or become another statistic. Gay sex was shameful again. The advice was cut down on partners, use condoms or die. I remember for a few years I pretty much gave up sex altogether, with or without condoms.
    Then the new combination treatments came along and people began to survive, though many of those first drugs had some pretty terrible side effects. But the advances in the last 10 years or so have been immeasurable. People don’t die anymore. Nor do the new treatments have such terrible consequences. People with HIV can now live a normal life. What’s more, whereas once it was deemed better to hold off treatment as long as possible, because of the toxicity of the drugs, now it is better to get people onto therapy as soon as possible as the therapy quickly brings down their viral load to undetectable, which means they cannot pass on the virus.

    It is of course quite possible that the fact that we are no longer seeing people suffering or dying around us had made us complacent, and this could be the reason we are seeing higher rates of HIV incidence amongst gay men. I’ll admit it; I was taking the odd risk that I wouldn’t have taken even 5 years ago. It may have been a calculated risk, but it was a risk nonetheless.

    Why take the risk at all, you might ask. Well, because I don’t like condoms. For years I have been having sex and not really enjoying it because I have had to use a condom. But even on those occasions, I took a calculated risk, enjoyment was difficult because there was always a doubt at the back of my mind. We may have discussed it, but how sure were we? Could I, or the person I was with, actually unknowingly have the virus and pass it on? We may have both tested negative recently, but how sure were we? And so on.

    Two years ago I wrote an article condemning the indiscriminate practice of barebacking, but the landscape has changed completely since then. There is still much in that article I agree with, and I have not ditched the condoms altogether. I rarely f**k or get f**ked at a sex club, but if I did I would still use a condom. Though, pre-AIDS, I would never have dreamed of using condoms, I would only now go bareback with someone I had a more intimate relationship with. What PrEP does is it removes that lingering anxiety, and how liberating that is.
    I’ll give you an example. A couple of days ago I had sex with a guy I have known now for about a year, a f**k buddy rather than a relationship if you want to put a label on it (I don’t). We have always used condoms before, even though we are both sure we are negative. On this occasion we didn’t, and the knowledge that I am on PrEP allowed us to have the kind of joyful, unbridled pleasure in each other that we had both forgotten existed, in the sure knowledge that neither of us could give each other HIV.That is a liberating experience, yet the moral police out there, would prefer that we didn’t have it. After all, gay sex is shameful, isn’t it? And condom free gay sex is even more shameful.

    I am convinced that many of those that are condemning the introduction of PrEP are also under the misapprehension that those gay men testing positive are just the dirty gay guys, the ones who go to weekend sex parties and take lots of drugs, and no doubt there is an undercurrent of feeling that they deserve it. (I don’t agree, by the way). Indeed only recently, former gay soldier James Wharton (one of the good gays) recommended closing down gay saunas, with the outrageous claim that they were standing in the way of equality and were breeding grounds for drugs and HIV. Good gay guys subscribe to the hetero-norm, they meet the man of their dreams and settle down in a monogamous relationship. But it would seem that many of these good gays, the ones with boyfriends, the ones who think they are in monogamous relationships, are still testing positive. Maybe some of these good gays are not as good as they like to think they are; maybe we should all stop being so damn judgemental; and maybe we should just welcome the advances in medical science that have brought us PrEP.

    There can be little doubt that much of the debate surrounding PrEP has been couched in moral terms. Only recently Michael Weinstein, the CEO and President of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation poured considerable funds into fighting its approval and went as far as calling Truvada a “party drug”, an outrageous comment on a drug that can help prevent transmission of the virus to a wide range of people, including gay men, sex workers and HIV-negative individuals in relationships with people living with HIV. A petition has been started to have him removed from office for trying to block one of the most revolutionary developments in the history of the AIDS epidemic. To quote Eric Paul Leue, Mr Los Angeles Leather 2014, who started the petition,

    “This petition is about whether we, the people, should be allowed access to accurate information, free of stigma and discrimination. Since 1980, HIV and its prevention has been framed in moral terms, and the people carrying the virus blamed. The head of our largest AIDS service organization should know that HIV prevention is not “a party.””

    PrEP is not widely available in the UK yet, but the PROUD study, of which I am a part, could result in it being offered to gay men more widely; offered to them, not forced on them. Isn’t it always better to have choices? If I am offered the chance of an extra level of protection against HIV, why should I be judged for accepting it? My body, my choice.
    Opinions expressed in this article may not reflect those of THEGAYUK, its management or editorial teams. If you’d like to comment or write a comment, opinion or blog piece, please click here.

  • FILM REVIEW | Blackwood

    ★★★★ | Blackwood

    If you had just recovered from a shattering emotional breakdown, it might seem like a good idea to relocate with your wife and son to a lonely old house in the middle of a remote wood. Or so you might think. Wrong. The house, it seems, is harbouring a dark secret and Ben Marshall (Ed Stoppard) is determined to get to the bottom of it.

    Blackwood is a modern ghost story cum psychological thriller in the tradition of period pieces like The Woman in Black. According to director Adam Wimpenny and writer J.S. Hill, the team gleaned inspiration from Nicolas Roeg’s darkly atmospheric Don’t Look Now and Joseph Losey’s bleak character-led drama Accident. I’m not sure this move is on the same level of inspiration as either of those two masterpieces, but it is consistently gripping, gradually building the suspense and keeping you guessing till the end when suddenly, and tragically, everything falls into place. I do abhor those thrillers which leave you somehow hanging in mid-air at the end. This one definitely gives you a finale.

    The film looks good too with great cinematography from Dale McCready, and Adam Wimpenny has got some great performances from his cast. The name best known to most of us will be Russell Tovey, fresh from his performance in HBO drama Looking, though here in a supporting role, convincingly playing against type as the sinisterly troubled war veteran Jack and looking pretty buff too. Ed Stoppard plays a highly strung Ben, a man desperately trying to hang on to control but gradually unravelling as the film progresses. As his wife Rachel, Sophia Myles is warmly feminine, concerned for her husband and fiercely protective of her son Harry (a really nice unaffected performance from young Isaac Andrews). Completing the cast is Greg Wise as Ben’s womanising best friend and colleague Dominic, and Paul Kaye as the enigmatic local priest Father Patrick.

    With a little more depth of character than we often get in thrillers or ghost stories, it is an eminently watchable movie, sure to give you the odd start.

    Blackwood opened in cinemas across the UK on August 1st

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Bath House, Above The Stag

    ★★★★ | Bath House, Above The Stag

    For their summer production, Above The Stag have returned to one of their successes from 2009. Bath House The Musical is a fun, frothy, irreverent romp, which is quite perfect for a summer evening. Given the fact that the cast spend most of the time wearing nothing but a towel, I imagine they’re quite relieved they are performing on warm summer evenings.

    The story, such as it is, concerns young Billy, wide-eyed and innocent, who turns up at the baths looking for love and fun. Advised on bathhouse etiquette by the disembodied voice of Giles Brandreth, he explores the steam room, the locker room, the showers and anywhere else he might find a bit of cock. Threaded through this narrative is a bit of an unlucky love story, but, don’t worry, there are no real broken hearts, and very little interrupts the generally high spirits of the show. Lyrics and script are both very funny.

    The score is a witty amalgam of musical references from Ethel Merman to jolly Christmas songs, not that you have to get the musical references in order to enjoy songs with titles like I’m a Bear Chaser, Clickin’ for dick, Bathhouse ABCs, Christmas at the Baths, and the hilariously sweet Penises are like Snowflakes. I’m still humming the tune three days after the show.

    Tim McArthur, who directed Above The Stag’s recent successful production of Orton, directs and also stars in the show, and proves to have excellent comic timing and a lovely voice. His direction and choreography is well conceived and never less than apt, but I did occasionally wonder if he might not have had a bit more cheeky fun with the towels.

    In such an ensemble piece, it would be insidious to single out any of the performers, who all get their moment to shine and who all give excellent accounts of themselves. The show being rather short, it ends with a sort of disco megamix of all the songs from the show, a la Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. It’s quite a marathon and my only criticism would be that the entire cast found it a wee bit taxing. In my experience the only way you prepare for something like that is to build the stamina by repeating the number without a break twice or three times. Maybe they didn’t have time. No worries, I’m sure they will build up the stamina by the end of the run.

    The projected run of Bath House The Musical sold out so quickly that it has been extended by three weeks and will now run until August 9th, so if you didn’t get your booking in early, there’s still time to catch it.

    Bath House the Musical is at the Above the Stag theatre in Vauxhall.

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Rock The Ballet, Peacock Theatre, London

    The Bad Boys of Dance’s new show “Rock the Ballet” bills itself as “a high-octane intersection of classical and contemporary set to a soundtrack of popular music”, so you wouldn’t be expecting much poetry or lyricism, and you’d be right. These dancers twist and turn and gyrate in a display of virtuososity, which is both breath-taking and exhausting to watch.

    That said, it got off to a rather slow start. The first act, labelled Beautiful Day, with the boys in casual jeans and polo shirts, tried, somewhat unsuccessfully, to meld a boy meets girl, falls in love with girl, falls out and falls back in again storyline to a pop soundtrack of U2, Coldplay and Donny Hathaway.

    Choreographed by Adrienne Cantera, who also brilliantly danced the central female role, this first act didn’t really coalesce until the final U2 “Beautiful Day”, when finally Cantera and all the boys came together in a dazzling whirl of energy. It was here too that the choreography most matched the music it was set to. Till then there had been bursts of invention, punctuated by too many moments of what I can only describe as mark till ready filling in. I also rather unkindly w ondered if we got a bit too much of Canterra, superb though she is. After all it was the guys we had come to see, and this first act harked back to old fashioned glorification of the prima ballerina. Apart from a few thrilling sequences from James Boyd, the boys took something of a back seat.

    All this was put to rights in the second act, when all the boys were at last given their chance to shine, and there was no doubting it was the boys the audience had come to see. It opened with a darkly atmospheric rendering of Brotzjor’s “Olafur Ornald”, and I had rather hoped that this more lyrical opening was an indication of how things were to go. However it wasn’t long before we were back to the energetic, pumping pop of the first act, only this time it was sexier, the boys in tight black pants and white vests. In particular, Blake Zelesnikar, who had caught my eye in the first half, was finally given his moment, first in a sexy duet with Canterra and then on his own. Judging from the audience reception, and the screams of delight from some of the girls (and no doubt some of the boys), I wasn’t the only one to notice him. This boy has sexual charisma in spades. James Boyd too got some amazing solo work in this half, and was the first one to show off his rippling torso. When all the guys finally got their shirts off and danced topless, there was no doubting that this is what the audience had come to see. It was also at this point my critical faculties deserted me. So who cares if it’s not exactly artistic? When Zelesnikar is flexing his muscular torso, nothing else seems to matter. Putting their jackets back on, they came out for an encore of (fittingly) “Sexy and I know it”, one by one stripping off their jackets again and flirting with the audience. By this time everyone was screaming for more, and I couldn’t really blame them.

    It’s not a show that’s likely to appeal to dance purists, and in all honesty it’s a bit safe, especially when you consider what Michael Clark was doing to pop music twenty odd years ago. But if you want to see some sexy boys, strutting their stuff and showing off their virtuosity (and let’s face it, who doesn’t?) then this is the show for you.

    Rock the Ballet runs until June 28th at the Peacock Theatre.

    3 stars for the show (that’s the critic in me)
    5 stars for Zelesnikar (OK, so I can be shallow.)