Death And Dancing
Kings Head Theatre • 10 August - 14 August
Death And Dancing, seen at The Kings Head Theatre as part of this years Queer Season, feels both contemporary and relevant in it’s examination of attraction, gender, sexuality, and the breaking down of stereotypes, which is impressive given this is actually the first major revival of Claire Dowie’s play, originally seen performed at the Battersea Arts Centre in 1992. Both intense and brilliantly funny in equal measure, this two-hander stars Roly Botha as ‘He’ and Shelley Rose Kapur as ‘She’. They are, for the record, also both called Max, (which worked fine on stage, but less well in the notes I had made during the performance). ‘He’ is an American student who travels to London, far enough away from his home to fully embrace life as a self assured gay man. ‘She’ is both gender-fluid and fierce, and soon become’s his best friend as they hit the clubs, confident in knowing exactly who they are and the space they occupy within the communities that define them. They are soon forced to rethink these stereotypes however as they quickly become inexplicably attracted to one another.
This raises a number of question’s for the friends. What does it mean to be a man? What does it mean to be a woman? What does it mean to be a lesbian? What does it mean to be gay? It’s heady, thought provoking stuff as we watch both of the Max’s identities slowly starting to shift as the boundaries of their relationship becoming increasingly blurred.
Botha and Kapur do a fantastic job in traversing this complicated journey of self discovery that takes their characters through both fun times and altogether darker moments. They also both prove to be incredibly deft at shifting between being completely unaware of the audience around them, to then suddenly breaking the fourth wall in order to bring the audience right into the very heart of the action. With the frequency at which these shifts occur, this could easily have got in the way of the connection that is slowly being established between the characters themselves, but instead it’s a device that works very well here, enhancing both character and story under the accomplished direction of Eloise Poulton. So comfortable were the actors in the ebb and flow of this process that Botha even managed to skilfully traverse his way around a couple of unpredictable moments (this being a first night performance) with some quick-fire ad-libs, neither pausing to break character or interrupt the flow of the play. Whilst these moments were met with laughter from the audience, they remained appropriate to the moment as well as the performance style that had already been established.
Death And Dancing is Shelly Rose Kapur’s professional debut, and her character is given a couple of wordy speeches that confront the accepted social constructs of gender identity whilst examining notions of masculinity and femininity. Whilst these sections can at times feel a little dense, Kapur’s performance remains impressive, not once appearing anything other than one hundred percent in control of the material. Botha was also once again on top form as he takes his character from a brash, bouncy, camp club kid to someone much more naive and sensitive as, spurred on by ‘She’, his boundaries are pushed even further in redefining everything he thought he knew about himself. At times it’s not particularly clear whether ‘She’s’ intentions are aggressively manipulative of genuinely explorative, but even with this ambiguity hanging over proceedings there is no denying that the chemistry between this on stage pairing remains a compelling watch throughout.
Filling the Kings Head Theatres late night slot, and therefore required to share the stage with headline production ‘All That’, more imaginative lighting could probably have saved the stage from looking quite as barren as it did, but Botha and Kapur’s performances were large enough to fill the space in which they found themselves.
★★★★
