Sauna Boy
Stage Door Theatre • 29th May - 1st June
It not having been that long since making my inaugural visit to one of London’s newest pub theatres, the Stagedoor Theatre above The Prince Of Wales on Drury Lane, I was back at this unique corner of London’s West End to see an altogether different offering, Sauna Boy by Dan Ireland-Reeves.
Whereas the previous production of The Tailor Made Man had immediately impressed by not allowing its pub theatre location to impact the scale of it’s ambition, either in the staging or in the impressive six-strong cast who delivered performances that would not have looked out of place in any of the neighbouring established West End theatres, Sauna Boy is a much more stripped-back affair by comparison, it being a one-man show performed by the playwright himself. However, Ireland-Reeves also clearly refuses to be stimied by any of the limitations inherent with such an intimate production as he skilfully manages to populate the fairly sparse set with a whole cast of colourful characters that he slips effortlessly in and out of (no pun intended) whilst delivering his semi-autobiographical monologue about the experience of working in a gay mens sauna for 12 months. Indeed, we are not even three minutes into the play before he has not only introduced his own character, affectionally known as ‘Danny Boy’, to the audience, but also his sardonic Venezuelan co-worker Marco, and the sauna’s owner, Allan, (a gloriously realised character not unlike the fabulously affectatious KACL radio food critic ‘Gil Chesterton’, from American sitcom Frasier). As the story unfolds he also takes on the guise of his Northern Irish co-worker Andrew, insipid drag queen Chardonnay as well as several of the sauna’s regulars.
Ireland-Reeves opens the show dressed simply in the sauna’s uniform of short-shorts, tight white vest, sneakers and a mandatory jock and, in a slightly meta fashion, begins to tell the story of an out of work actor taking on extra jobs to make ends meet. That this real life deviation as the sauna’s receptionist/cleaner gave him the basis for such a well observed show I assume has ultimately made the experience a worthwhile sidetrack for him, but by the very nature of the subject matter, his is certainly not a story for the feint-hearted, and Ireland-Reeves makes no effort to spare our blushes as he offers us a behind the ‘steam’ glimpse into the sweaty business of running a gay mens sauna. Far from content at just trying to shock his audience for comedic purposes however, (which, by the sound of the intermittent gasps that could be clearly heard during this particular sold out performance, he manages to do on more than one occasion), he also infuses the play with plenty of heart, and with the volatile sauna’s owner being referred to as ‘Mother’ by the rest of the staff, it soon becomes clear that together with the rest of the staff, they have all become less of a team and more of a family, albeit a highly dysfunctional… not to mention an increasingly sexually desensitised one! “I have never seen this much dick in my life!”, exclaims Dan after working at the sauna for just a couple of weeks, but after two months he has found himself progressing to manager, a job he cares enough about to formulate a list of ambitious goals to better improve the sauna’s popularity… as well as it’s takings.
In Sauna Boy Dan Ireland-Reeves has managed to create a very enjoyable 70min show during which you find yourself caring more about the myriad of oddball characters than you might have initially expected to. A likeable performer who’s delivery skims a fine line between theatrical monologue and a well honed piece of observational stand-up, it is the care an attention put into his performance, the stage lighting and numerous off-stage sound-cues that brings this back to being a piece of highly enjoyable theatre.
★★★★
review: Simon J. Webb