THEGAYUK

Tag: Gay Plays

The latest reviews and news about gay plays in London and around the UK.

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Boys In The Band

    THEATRE REVIEW | Boys In The Band

    ★★★★ | Boys In The Band

    1the-boys-in-the-band-mark-gatiss-jack-derges-cdarren-bell

    “There’s one thing to be said about masturbation: you certainly don’t have to look your best”

    What was shocking to American theatre audiences in 1968 (and cinema goers in 1970 when the film was made) isn’t going to be daring or titillating anymore. The only thing that’s shocking is that viewers less than 50 years ago would be so outraged by a play about a group of gay men having a party with a lasagne and salad instead of Crystal Meth.  So what does ‘The Boys in the Band’ have to offer to the contemporary viewer? The answer is that the issues facing the men are scarily pertinent, still. The play came under fire from some for its negative portrayal of gay men but there’s something chillingly familiar about these boys.

    Uptight materialist Michael (Ian Hallard) has a drink and spending problem, although he’s currently on the wagon from the booze. He’s hosting a birthday party in his New York apartment for waspish self-proclaimed ‘pock-marked fairy Jew’ Harold (played by Hallard’s real life husband Mark Gattiss). Camp and flamboyant Emery has hired a muscular hooker as a gift. Soon to be divorced father of two, Hank is trying to make his relationship work within the constraints of monogamy whilst his partner Larry’s has a distinct inability to keep it in his pants in a world where sex is freely available. Bernard is struggling with the casual racist jibes of his friends and bookish Donald (Daniel Boys) is undergoing analysis to help him come to terms with being gay.

    I don’t know about you but these are a lot like the people in my social circle. Issues with drugs and alcohol, poor self-esteem, self-hatred, shame, looking down on effeminate gays, cruising the saunas too much, open-relationships versus monogamy versus the compromise of the odd threesome here and there? The boys of 1968 might have had different drugs and clothes and lived in a more oppressive society but the songs remain the same.

    It’s a funny play, starting with a sit-com-like first act where a random heterosexual re-surfaces from Michael’s past and lands at the party like a fly in the ointment. There are one-liners that pack a punch and Gattiss is the master of the arch eyebrow movement and gives a seemingly effortless performance as Harold.  Act Two is darker and becomes a sub ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf’ as the men get steadily more drunk and play a caustic party game. The climax is poignant and dark in equal measures and there are some deeply affecting moments.

    Despite the odd patch where the script is heavy-handed, shows its age and the occasional clunky plot device flails, overall this is a great play and a worthwhile revival with a triumphant staging from director Adam Penfold. Well worth a visit.

    After the run at The Park Theatre in London the play moves to Manchester from the 3rd to the 6th of November, Brighton from the 8th to the 12th and Leeds from the 14th to the 19th of November.

     

    Follow Chris Bridges on http://www.twitter.com/chrisb715Twitter

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Kenny Morgan at the Arcola Theatre

    THEATRE REVIEW | Kenny Morgan at the Arcola Theatre

    ★★★★ | Kenny Morgan

    If you missed “Kenny Morgan” this summer then you have a second chance. The play is back for four weeks at The Arcola Theatre in Dalston and remains an evocative and beautiful treat of a play with a host of polished performances.

    Theatre review for kenny thomas
    CREDIT: Idil Sukan

     

    Kenny Morgan was a young actor who had had a promising career in 1940’s British films. He had also had an on/off relationship for ten years with Terrence Rattigan, a high profile British playwright. In 1949 Kenny gassed himself to death in a down at heel Camden Town flat that he was sharing with a young actor who he’d left Rattigan for. Terrence Rattigan’s play “The Deep Blue Sea” echoes Kenny’s story to a degree but with gender switching to suit the times (and the Lord Chamberlain’s office).

    Set in a mould encrusted flat with gas pipes defining the space, this play depicts Kenny’s despair. Sounds grim but it’s not. It’s witty and warm as well as devastating. Paul Keating is superb as Morgan, delicately easing us into his despair and leaving the audience frustrated and helpless but never less than sympathetic. Mike Poulton’s script is tight and detailed and achieves a difficult task: retaining dramatic tension even when we know the inevitable ending. The dialogue and set feel wholly authentic, transporting the viewer to 1940s London along with its restrictions. There’s something claustrophobic and terrifying about Kenny’s world where being gay is illegal and can land you in prison, as can attempting suicide.

    Although Kenny is a different beast from most of us in contemporary Britain, there are plenty of parallels and as well as the beauty of the piece; this makes it well worth a visit. Who hasn’t felt heartbroken and despairing and been laid low by loving the wrong man? Kenny has fallen for a man who doesn’t even claim to love him, has stopped sleeping with him and is still sleeping with women and men behind his back. Not an unusual story. Neither is the story of his relationship with Rattigan. Unable to be out in public Rattigan maintained elaborate ruses to keep his homosexuality both from the public and from his family. I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s met men like that? Who hasn’t struggled to understand someone else’s depression or even their own? Although his misery is tangible, it’s difficult not to want to try to solve Kenny’s issues.

    The play isn’t as bleak as it sounds on paper. There are fine comedic moments and the pace is brisk. There are also touching moments of human kindness as the people around Kenny try their best to help. My recommendation is to just see this. You’re unlikely to see a finer play with a gay theme any time soon.

    Kenny Morgan plays at the Arcola Theatre until 15th October

     

    Follow Chris Bridges on Twitter

  • GAY THEATRE: The five shows you need to watch this Autumn

    GAY THEATRE: The five shows you need to watch this Autumn

    London is bursting at the seams with theatre and this autumn is looking particularly gay. Here are 5 things that are on my radar for the cooler weather to come.

    Boys In The Band
    The Classic One:
    “The Boys in the Band” is having a revival at the Park Theatre, London. Mr and Mr, Mark Gatiss and his husband Ian Hallard are appearing in this overdue revival of a classic gay play from 1968. Self-loathing gay man Harold isn’t happy about aging and is in for an interesting birthday night as the drinks flow too freely and one of his close friends has bought him a hot male hooker for the night. The play shocked straight audiences when it first played. It also divided gay audiences with some seeing it as a making headway in the fight for gay rights and others seeing it as a negative portrayal of waspish queens wallowing in self-pity. Not so different from some of the reactions to the way the media presents gay men in the 21st century. See what you think for yourself. This should be a corker.

    Previews: 28 Sep 2016. Runs from 4th Oct 2016 (7:00pm) until: 30 Oct 2016

    The Historical One:
    Kenny Morgan returns for a second run at The Arcola in Dalston, London. Mike Poulton based this play around the events that inspired Terrence Rattigan to write his work The Deep Blue Sea. In 1949 Rattigan’s on/off lover, the eponymous Morgan, gassed himself to death after struggling with diminishing success in his acting career and a turbulent love affair. It’s a fascinating glimpse of what life for a gay man might have been like in the post-war period and there’s a stellar turn from Paul Keating as Morgan. TheGayUK saw this first time around and I gave it a thumping good 4 stars.

    Run at the Arcola Tuesday 20 September – Saturday 15 October. They also have Pay What You Can Tuesdays (tickets in person from 6pm – limited and subject to availability).
    The Fringey One:
    The tiny Hope Theatre in Islington is perched above a pub on Upper Street and this month has these short morsels on offer, lasting 90 minutes in total. Two Short Plays About Gays are Middle Aged Rent which is about a teenager lost in the maze that was Eighties London, long before mobile phones, social media & Grindr. How he comes out, both literally and figuratively, is the focus of this new piece, specifically written to premiere at The Hope. The Diva Drag is a bittersweet story of love and (possible) reconciliation.  Do you go to your homophobic mother’s funeral, or go on stage as her instead?

    Sounds like a fascinating hour and a half in an intimate setting. Theatre in this small a venue can be visceral and fierce so here’s hoping for both.

    Runs at The Hope until 24th of September

    The Eclectic One:
    And What? is the newest (and only) pan-London Queer Arts Festival on the block, featuring 130+ artists and more than 25 events in 15 venues throughout September and October. Covering the North, South, East and West of the Capital And What? brings you everything from Visual arts to Circus, International drag Superstars to LGBTQI film and Performance Art to Dance.

    Expect edgy, scary, hilarious and some just plain wrongness (or you should demand your money back). That’s what a good fringe fest should be all about. I’m drawn to Return to Grey Gardens. I’m a sucker for RuPaul’s Drag Race star Jinkx Monsoon. Who doesn’t love a narcoleptic Jewish drag queen?

     
    The Immersive One
    Tennessee Williams’ plays speak to gay men in an inimitable way. Faded Southern Belles, repressed men and domineering matriarchs and all that passion and desperation? It certainly chimes chords with my past, present and future. Due to the constraints of his times, Tennessee’s plays didn’t feature openly gay men. This play features two and this version is semi-immersive (semi-immersive sounds good to me. It implies voyeurism with no interaction). The audience gets to spend the evening with a bunch of shameless lowlifes in a run down bar. It’s been re-imagined as taking place in a seaside bar in Essex. Sounds genius to me. William’s always gives good value and this one sounds utterly intriguing.

    Catch it at The Southwark Playhouse from the 5th to the 29th of October.

    Follow Chris Bridges on Twitter

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Party

    THEATRE REVIEW | Party

    ★★★★ | Party at Above The Stag

    CREDIT: PBGStudios
    CREDIT: PBGStudios

    There’s a party going on in Vauxhall and you’re all invited!

    Party, a play at the Above the Stag theatre, is about seven gay men who get together one evening to hang out, chat, be together, and basically talk about sex, as gay men do! And what a party it is! It involves alcohol, lots of alcohol, where seven handsome and hunky guys pretty much up for anything, play a game called Fact or Fantasy, a bit like Truth or Date, which involves, of course, male nudity – all taking place in a cozy living room.

    Party, written by David Dillon in 1992, originally ran in Chicago before moving to New York, and has even been produced internationally.

    For this version, directed by Gene David Kirk, the party, and action, takes place in a British man’s living room, with references to British culture, news, and the requisite British accents! It’s the home of Kevin (Nic Kyle), who is letting out his extra bedroom to Peter (Stefan Gough). In attendance at the party are dancer Brian (Jamie Firth), teacher Ray (Ben Kavanagh), Philip (Lucas Livesy), James (Sam Goodchild) and young and innocent Andy (Tom Leach). They’re all friends, good friends, but when they decide to play Fact or Fiction, a game where one man is to tell the truth, lie, or act out someone else’s fantasy, secrets are revealed, as well as skin, lots of skin, in a game where being shy is not an option! And it’s Ray who steals the show with best lines – he actually berates Andy for not knowing who ‘Barbra’ is or how to tell the difference between a cast album and a soundtrack. Peter reveals, during the game, that he’s got a secret crush with one of the men, while Brian is sexy and he knows it, and is the first to strip off. It’s a party in this intimate theatre where the audience feels like they’re right in the middle.

    Party is 100 minutes of very funny jokes, lively atmosphere, and laugh out loud comedy. It’s play which celebrates gay men who enjoy the company of other gay men, sexual attraction or not. And all the actors deserve praise, and courage, for baring it all – it’s exciting and done in good taste. This is one party you definitely don’t want to miss.

    Party plays at Above The Stag until October 30th

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Punkplay

    ★★★ | Punkplay

    punkplay at the Southwark Playhouse
    CREDIT: Helen Murray

    “…there are no actual rules except the ones we choose to live under. You need to eat, drink water, sleep now and then. The rest is negotiable.”

    There’s a celebration of punk this year in London. But what exactly is ‘punk”? A 40 year-old music genre, a lifestyle choice or a way of thinking? Commerce would have you believe it’s a look that you can emulate by spending cash on the high street. It’s way more complex than any of those definitions. “punkplay” relates Punk to the lives of two teenage boys who are feeling conflicted and struggling to see how they fit into 1980’s American society.

    Duck’s father wants him to enlist in the army to learn discipline and awkward and ungainly Mickey wants to find where he fits into the scheme of things and snog the face off schoolmate Sue Giki. He’s also keen to learn about sex from Duck. The boys linger in Mickey’s bedroom, making up band names, calling each other faggots and surrendering to feelings of disaffected rage. They’re on roller-skates too, all the way through the play. Don’t ponder this one too much. It makes sense by the end. They fight over a girl, insult each other and French kiss: usual teenage boy stuff.

    It’s hard to capture the anarchic and chaotic feel of punk without resorting to clichés but the mostly novice team here have managed to do this with verve and a resounding freshness. It’s uncomfortable viewing, claustrophobic and raucous with bursts of comedy. Naturally, there are blasts of music as the boys riff on an electric guitar and hammer at drums.

    This isn’t a play that will suit everyone but it has a soul and a message and it’s one that grabs the viewer. It’s one of those plays that gains something from being reflected upon and the ending redeems everything that went before. There’s a peculiar beauty to the piece and it has a witty symmetry. The play left me thinking of how “punk” relates to “queerness” and gay identity. Lack of rules and negotiable norms? I’ll take some of that.

    Punkplay runs at the Southwark Playhouse until the 1st October

    Follow Chris Bridges on Twitter

  • THEATRE REVIEW | The Chemsex Monologues

    ★★★★ | The Chemsex Monologues

    Introducing a hexagon of narratives that will surge a memory, ignite a demon or pep your G spot.

    PR Supplied

    If you’ve never darkened the dimly lit doorway of a chill-out, you’ll grasp that the etiquette for accepting others’ pharmaceuticals is to putout; sexual health workers hand out condoms in saunas to the beats of Kylie; Bermondsey is a hotspot for Roman style orgies; gays high on meth get lost buying cigarettes; G-o’clock equals a contorting face; overdoing the liquid-high could leave you with an unexplained bleeding rectum.

    Writer Patrick Cash leans on the darker side of the drug-fueled free-for-all, with more authenticity than an Eastenders’ Christmas double bill – graphically touching on a mosaic of very real circumstances.

    Sex, high on narcotics, can rocket your orgasm to another sphere, but, for some, what happens when the euphoria fades?

    Denholm Spurr (Nameless), snorts Andrex-Puppy-ness into a character you’ll know, have seen or can relate to. Charly Flyte (Fag Hag Cath) is credible and injects a decent size syringe full of humour.

    Leave ya poppers at home and there’s no need for laughing gas. You’ll rush, and sink to the bottom, in this well-quilled chem-hole.

    The Chemsex Monologues plays at The Kings Head Theatre until 20th August 2016, 0207 226 8561 

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Do you have a secret crush?

    THEATRE REVIEW | Do you have a secret crush?

    ★★★★ | Do you have a secret crush?

    Something quite extraordinary is happening in Wandsworth, the mid 90’s gay scene has come back to life and it’s hilarious as it is heartbreaking.

    CREDIT: PND Photography

     

    Based on a true story, Do You Have A Secret Crush (sleeping with straight men) transports you back to mid-90s-America, where a gay man, Stanley (Chris Britton), working in the city’s only gay bar Flamingos, is eager to spread his wings and escape Pontiac in Michigan. He falls head over heels with a straight waiter, Lee (Rich Watkins) whilst out to lunch with his drag queen friend Sally (Dave Lynn).

    He devises a plan to tell Lee that he has fallen for him, live in front of a television audience, to be broadcast nationally on the daily chat show The Jill Johnson show.

    Flown first class, limo drop offs, all expenses paid trip to New York, both Stan and Lee make their way to the studio separately for the big reveal. What could possibly go wrong?

    The small but perfectly formed company fits in the cosy space of the Lost Theatre in the heart of Wandsworth.

    You’re immediately transported back to the 90s thanks to a rather fabulous soundtrack and costumes. Britton plays Stanley confidently and cheekily, filled with life. Watkins plays straight man Lee safe, curious and slightly unnerving. Ruth Petersen’s mid-morning Talk Show host is perfectly fake, disingenuous and veneered. Drag icon Dave Lynn smoulders as Sally and belts out some glorious numbers. It is however Louie Westwood who manages to steal the show, with his shrieks and trills, hair tszujing and high-campery.

    Do you have a secret crush 1
    CREDIT: PND Photography
    Do you have a secret crush 1
    CREDIT: PND Photography

     

    If your in the mood this summer for some gay history, a slice of campery, a belly of laughs, a hint of longing and a tragic reminder of period less accepting, this glorious time capsule of a play is a must see.

    Do You Have A Secret Crush is playing at the Lost Theatre, Wandsworth until 21st August.

     

    SPOILER (if you’ve not heard of the Scott Amedure story.)

    It’s an incredibly powerful story – even more chilling that it is based on the murder of Scott Amedure in 1995, who went on the Jenny Jones’ talk show to tell Jonathan Schmitz that he was attracted to him. After a “suggestive” note was delivered an enraged Schmitz bought a shotgun and shot Amedure twice in the chest.

    Schmitz was found guilty of second degree murder and is currently serving a 25-50 year sentence.

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Get Em Off, Above The Stag

    ★★★ | Get Em Off

    Well, it’s not exactly The Full Monty – it’s called ‘Get ‘Em Off!’ Set in the suburbian enclave of Croydon, ‘Get ‘Em Off’ takes place in the only gay bar around for miles – The Golden Canary – and it’s a dive.

    Run by proprietor/proprietress Quinny, a/k/a Baz (Dereck Walker), it’s a bar that needs some spicing up. So it’s his employee Mitch (Joe Goldie) who comes up with the idea of turning Monday night into a gay strip competition to bring in more customers. And so that’s what they do. And they encourage their customers to enter in the hopes of winning the cash prize. Milosh (Michael Nelson), from Kosovo, is one of the first ones to enter, he’s definitely not shy about showing his body. Then there’s Ricky (Ashley Daniels), who is a regular customer to the bar when his boring partner (David Michael Hands) is out of town on business and who actually forbids Ricky from going to the gay bar as he doesn’t think they should lead ’that kind of lifestyle.’ But there’s a spark between Milosh and Ricky that’s palpable.

    Meanwhile back at the bar, Baz, all dolled up in sequins and a head wrap, hosts the competition. Mitch urges his all so sexy and very hot straight friend Luke (Tom Bowen) to enter, hey Luke’s wife is about to give birth to their first child so he says why not? And it’s poor Brian (Stuart Harris), Mitch’s school teacher, newly single after six years, trying to find his way back into the gay scene, and finds himself at The Golden Canary. With the strip competition such a success, Quinny decides to enter her men in a national strip competition. So ‘Get Em Off’ follows The Full Monty’s plot where the men practice and practice for the competition where we all know what’s going to happen.

    ‘Get Em Off’ should’ve been called ‘The Gay Full Monty.’ It’s a camp musical comedy with very funny lines but not very funny nor memorablesongs (one is titled ‘Get Your Dick Out).

    The book, by Jon Bradfield and Martin Hooper, gives Quinny some of the best lines in the show, though Milosh and Mitch have some as well. Walker steals the show even when his/her men get naked – he’s hilarious! Hands also deserves a mention as he plays various roles and is unrecognizable in each one of them. ‘Get Em Off’ is not the best show the Above the Stag has produced, but it’s perhaps perfect for the summer season when all gay boys want to do is see to watch light-hearted fare with cute guys and lots of nudity. This is the show for them.

    Get Em Off run at Above The Stag until 28/08/16

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Stella

    How difficult was it to be a gay man with a penchant for dressing up in drag in Victorian England? The answers provided by ‘Stella” might surprise you. ★★★★

    (more…)

  • THEATRE REVIEW | The Sins of Jack Saul

    ★★★★ | The Sins Of Jack Saul

    The Above the Stag Theatre is now presenting the new musical ‘The Sins of Jack Saul.’ Well who is Jack Saul you might ask?

    Jack Saul was a male prostitute in London who went by the name ‘Dublin Jack,’ because he was from Dublin. He left for London at the age of 22 and wasn’t sure what to find there. He eventually fell into prostitution and was involved in two major homosexual scandals. For it being the late 1800s, homosexuality was scandalous and even criminal behaviour.

    But what made Jack Saul famous (or infamous if you will) was his involvement with a lieutenant in the Irish army, and working in a male brothel in London – at 19 Cleveland Street (which in itself was a musical at the Stag called ‘Cleveland Street – The Musical‘) . So ‘The Sins of Jack Saul’ tell his interesting and scandalous life through song and a bit of dance, and a helpful narration by the devil (provided by the handsome yet evil looking Michael Gonsalves).

    It’s a typical production for Above the Stag, and through this production we get to learn who Saul is and what were his sins.

    ‘The Sins of Jack Saul’ is based on the book ’The Sins of Jack Saul – the True Story of Dublin Jack and The Cleveland Street Scandal’ by Scottish playwright Glenn Chandler.

    Saul is played by Jack McCann, who is very good and believable. We get to relive his life, his life back home in Ireland with his mother (Felicity Duncan, who also plays other roles, including a French Prostitute) and his disapproving brother (Ciaran Bowling – who also geniously plays Lieutenant KIrwan – the army officer Saul gets involved with).

    We see Saul become an in-demand call boy – sleeping with very important people, including Lord Euston (David Mullen), a relationship that would eventually be the catalyst for the downfall of the brothel, and for Jack. ‘The Sins of Jack Saul’ is set to music, with appropriate songs to match the plot (‘I Always Wanted a Man in Uniform’ and ‘Pornography’) being a couple of the standouts.

    ‘The Sins of Jack Saul’ is a satirical romp through the eyes of one of London’s most notorious rent boys.

    The Sins Of Jack Saul plays at Above The Stag until 12 th June 2016

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Abominations

    THEATRE REVIEW | Abominations

    ★★ | Abominations

    CREDIT: Robert Piwko / www.robertpiwko.co.uk

    CREDIT: Robert Piwko / www.robertpiwko.co.uk

    Jeff is a married man with a fetish for wrestling. He’s walked out on his religious but shrewish wife and is hiding out in his hometown in southern England where he’s having a fumble with grieving youngster Malcolm. By coincidence, Malcolm’s boss is Jeff’s Biblical claptrap spouting father.

    Is a play about a secretly gay married man still relevant in 2016? Sadly it is. It’d be naïve to think that being gay in contemporary British society was accepted by everyone and that gay men weren’t still suppressing their sexuality and trying to hide in plain sight. Any foray into gay life will tell you that the phenomenon of the closeted gay man is still very much present. You can’t spend more than five minutes on a hook-up app, the Internet or in a sauna without tripping over a married man or two. The issues in the play are still prevalent. Gay men might be able to marry and public opinion might have moved on but people are still prejudiced and still spout obscure parts of religious tracts to justify this. Some people are still so affected by the prejudices of others that they suppress their natures and try to be things that they aren’t.

    In spite of this there’s something dated feeling about “Abominations”.

    The problem with the play isn’t the subject matter but the dialogue and characterisation. Whilst Jeff feels generally convincingly drawn and credible, his wife feels like a two-dimensional throwback to a dated sit-com. Malcolm is an earnest ukulele-playing buffoon who reveals few other character traits than naivety and rather than endearing, is more of an irritant. The dialogue is stilted and quaint at times. Scenes are short with awkward shuffling pauses. In spite of some well-drawn sections the sum of the play is much less than its parts and fails to gel. The comedy often falls flat and sits awkwardly with the more intense and better-written scenes.

    The saving grace of the piece has to be the stunning central performance from Alexander Hulme as Jeff. He handles the part with style, imbuing the character with credibility and hinting at the shifting emotional landscape of a man unravelling. He’s all swagger and brittle chav charm but manages to give glimpses of something deeper and darker with a softer core. He’s also very easy on the eye and displays a lot of flesh that distracts the viewer. In the midst of the play there are some genuinely moving scenes between Jeff and his father and Gary Heron displays some fine acting that ably supports Hulme in his role.

    This is definitely a play that had potential and there are glimpses of unrealised style and impact. The well-written lines stand out and there are scenes that have real power. Sadly, the finished overall product felt almost as tired and lacklustre as the location of the theatre: Camden High Street.

    Abominations plays at the Etcetera Theatre Until the 29th of May 2016