Xposed
Southwark Playhouse, 11th February 2018
I’m not sure if it’s just me becoming increasingly more aware of whats going on in the theatres and fringe spaces across London at the moment, but it almost seems as if there is currently a queer theatre renaissance going on as, being barely two months in to 2018, hardly a week has gone by without there being a new production to check out. This has been helped in part by some fantastic LGBTQ+ programming at this years Vault Festival, there was a triumphant west-end transfer of Strangers In Between to the Trafalgar Studios and yet more productions being shown as part of the Omnibus Theatre’s 96 Festival. Jack The Lad’s diary is also filling up with new productions that will be keeping us entertained until the end of March, (you might want to check out our #SundayShoutouts on our @jacktheladmag twitter page for more information about those) but last night I went to the Southwark Playhouse where Full Disclosure Theatre presented Xposed, “a new writing night of eight short plays by eight emerging writers, revealing the naked and entertaining truths about queer life”.
Having already been won over to this showcase style format from a previous visit to Waterloo East to see Shaun Kitchener's ‘Briefs’ (not a sentence I’d expected to find myself writing!) back in Oct ’16, I arrived with my hopes already high for the evening ahead. At approximately fifteen minutes each, short works like these need to traverse the fine line of getting to the heart of the story as quickly as possible but not at the expense of creating characters that the audience can relate to and empathise with, which is no meant feat. On the plus side of course, if one does fall short of the mark then it’s not long to wait for the next one to begin. Thankfully this was not a concern for the eight short plays being showcased here, each one feeling as refreshingly original as the next. At times the evening felt more like a masterclass of the short play format than a showcase of the eight emerging writers, and it is exceptionally reassuring to know that this calibre of writing not only exists, but that it is also being supported in this way.
Not wanting to retract any of this well deserved praise, there is of course always going to be some pieces that resonate more than others, sometimes influenced by how relatable a story is to ones own experiences. With that in mind, Tessa Hatts performance in Adam Szudrich’s ‘Slow Dating’ was made all the more impressive given that I am far from being an elderly lady trying to speed date for the first time, and was for me the stand out performance of the evening. As one of Xposed’s three monologue’s it was superbly written and flawlessly directed and performed. Tessa inhabited her character completely, with comic timing that was a delight to watch as she played to the audience’s extended laughter perfectly, and was more than deserving of the applause she received.
The volume and duration of the applause given by the enthusiastic audience was notable throughout this sold out performance, right from Fergus Church’s opening monologue, 'Tapestry', in which Owen, (another highly enjoyable performance by Evan Horton), finds himself unable to overcome the insecurities that prevent him from being able to accept even the simplest gestures of affection in public, brought to bare by a lifetime of being made to feel different. This central premise of insecurity and uncertainty somehow seemed to permeate many of the plays throughout the evening, there being as many moving and poignant moments as there were laughs, ‘We Have To Tell Jacob' by George Smart being one of the plays being played very much for laughs by turning the conventional coming out story on it’s head. In this instance it was up to the parents (Katharine Jee and Russell Anthony) to inform their previously oblivious son that, after the results of a genetic test, he is in fact ‘100% gay’. This came as light relief following on from one of the evenings more moving pieces, ‘Two Extra Letters’ by Hannah Sowerby, in which Chris, (Alex T Hornby) a married father of two, begins his journey through sex reassignment surgery to become Chrissy.
For me, only ‘Here and Now’ by Tanaka Mhishi and ‘The Trip’ by Joe West fell short of fully realising their full potential. In the first case, a young bi woman recounts the loves of her life which, whilst being innovatively staged, felt stylistically uneven. The latter, about a last ditch attempt by a father to bond with his son, occasionally teetered on the edge of caricature and, with this being the shortest play of the evening, never quite managed to make it’s characters fully connect. Both still had their stand out moments, and with Ian Townsend’s ‘As If We Just Held Hands’ bringing the evening to a hilarious end with a kiss so long that I almost felt like I was intruding, I left the theatre feeling I had definitely experienced the work of some exceptionally capable emerging new talent, and if this selection of short plays is anything to go by, it looks like the future of compelling LGBTQ+ theatre is in very good hands.
★★★★
