Man-Cub
Kings Head Theatre, 18th Oct & 20 Oct 2017
Those familiar with Jack The Lad’s theatre reviews will be used to us sometimes banging on about the fortuitous fit between a production and it’s venue, and in the case of Man-Cub at the Kings Head Theatre it's not so much the physical attributes of the theatre that brought an unexpected extra quality to this production, but the hot, clammy atmosphere of the venue given that this was one of the theatres ‘late night’ shows that followed a 2 hour performance of the opera Tosca. The venue isn’t best known for it’s ventilation, (the theatre is moving to new premises next year), and with the auditorium not long being vacated by 100+ people on an unusually hot October evening, the theatre already had a more than believable warm and humid club “atmosphere’, very appropriate given that’s where the action in Man-Cub takes place, making the sweat that is soon dripping off the faces of this group of energetic performers very real indeed!
Man-Cub is a coming of age piece about a young mans sexual awakening as he searches to find his identity, his tribe and the acceptance he craves from them. It is a piece of devised theatre which, by it’s nature, means much is brought to the construction of the piece by the cast themselves, overseen and structured by first time director Alistair Wilkinson who sets the tone in the press notes with a quote from ‘The Jungle Book’. “(Mowgli) came naked, by night, alone and very hungry; yet he was not afraid!” With the club becoming the jungle that the action takes place in, a second, darker quote seems better placed to describe the darker ambitions on display here, “If you can’t learn to run with the pack, one of these days you’ll be someones dinner”. For me this certainly seemed to be the struggle facing a number of the characters here.
This dark undercurrent is almost unintentionally evident from the very opening scene as, in the light of the recent Harvey Weinstein scandal, the seemingly increasing sexualisation of the body checks by the club security on the young, scantily clad kids seeking to gain entrance immediately feels both uncomfortable and intrusive. Once in the club we are presented with a number of vignettes, the spotlight shifting to a number of the characters experiences within the loose narrative, returning throughout to the ‘Mowgli’ of this piece, a young club kid played in an exceptional performance by Alex Britt, more of who later. All this is mostly expressed by innovative and highly watchable dance and movement. Indeed, when the first spoken words do occur, it feels more like an unnecessary intrusion than a worthy addition, it’s somewhat trite observations on gay culture adding nothing to the infinitely more enjoyable interpretive and impressionistic quality of the performance.
This was just one moment in the play’s first third that unfortunately seemed to lack the same clarity and sharpness of what was to follow. Some scenes seemed unnecessarily laboured, and despite there being some really nice ideas explored, less would have definitely been more in moving between them a bit more economically. That said, when the action does find it’s stride, what unfolds on stage becomes little short of mesmorising. We witness the characters being forced to deal with the beautiful, the brutal, the ecstasy, the tragedy, the hedonism, the isolationism and the tribalism of club/gay culture, all as a rights of passage to discover themselves and the groups to which they try to find acceptance.
With the flashing lights, loud music and entwined bodies of this club setting, the performance relies on the energy of the cast, all of whom deliver superbly, and at it’s most focussed there are several moments that are both genuinely moving and intensely uncomfortable to watch. Andy McCredie’s beautifully reworked rendition of “I Wanna Be Like You” (played live at the piano) genuinely gave me goose-bumps, making Lizzie Manwaring's already disturbing portrayal of a sexual attack even more of a shocking jolt to the senses. It is the young lead Alex Britt who delivers a show stealing central performance however. The portrayal of his journey from wide-eyed naivety to sexual awakening is faultless, (as well as a superb bit of casting) and his reflective monologue at the end provides the second goose-bump moment of the evening. This I found doubly impressive given the energy he had clearly expelled on such a committed physical performance throughout. his bloodshot eyes and sweat covered body being proof that he hadn’t held back from the demands of the piece, and a poignant way to finish this wholly engaging piece of theatre.
Add to all of the above one of the best musical soundtracks I have heard for quite some time (a note to the director… please send me the playlist!) and Man-Cub is a piece of theatre that Jack The Lad would definitely recommend you go and see.
★★★ and a half
photographs: Tammana Begum