'Coming Clean' at the King's Head Theatre

A few weeks ago we went to see the last play by Kevin Elyot - 'Twilight Song' at the Park Theatre - so it was only appropriate to go to see his first play, 'Coming Clean' at the King's Head Theatre, this week. Kevin Elyot wrote 'My Night With Reg' a decade later and it's interesting to see the similarities in characters and themes. He clearly had his own agenda and he stuck with it.

'Coming Clean' is the tale of four gay men in the early '80s, two of whom are in a committed relationship of five years but are allowed to 'play away', their long-term friend and the out of work actor who becomes their cleaner. There are only the four of them in this play (well, five, I suppose, if you count the friend who comes on as a German leather queen at the end) so it's very intimate and needs a strong story to keep it going. That's what puzzled me for a while - what is the play about and where is it trying to go? It took a while to get going.

Something that rather irrationally annoyed me was that Tony and William came on stage ten minutes before the play started to 'do acting' as the audience came into the theatre, being camp and eating with open mouths. Why? I mean, why? What does that add to the experience? It just annoyed me.

So, there we have it, with Tony and William talking about last night's cruising adventures when the would-be cleaner arrives in the shape of out of work actor Robert. William instantly fancies Robert who we subsequently learn in gay. Later we meet Tony's partner, an American writer and teacher, Greg. Their fifth anniversary dinner is cooked by Robert but William arrives late with black eyes from being gay-bashed in his own flat by a pick-up in a gents toilet. Tony takes William to hospital and, we later find out, that's the night that Greg and Robert get together for the start of their affair.

Four months later Tony arrives back early and finds a naked Robert bent over for Greg in their living room. An open relationship is one thing but being confronted by it is quite another thing. This spurs questioning about the nature of their relationship and whether it can continue. It took a long time to get there but this is the core of the play.

It was an interesting journey but I didn't really care for any of the characters. It was probably a brave play back in 1982, to explore gay relationships before the threat of HIV/AIDS when sleeping around and hedonism was ok. But it didn't touch me and I didn't care whether Tony and Greg's relationship worked or not. I didn't care about the disingenuous Robert or the uber-camp William. They didn't matter much to me. Not like the more fully-rounded characters in 'Reg' a decade later.

What really irritated me about the production were two relatively minor things, I suppose. Firstly was Tony's incessant faffing with this hair and putting it behind his ears. Not a minute went by but he faffed with his hair. Is that meant to be a gay trait or something, to signal that he's gay? Just stop it! The other irritant was the set, yes, the whole thing. It's set in Tufnell Park so it's not that glamorous but having worn through paint work on the door and wall paper that looks like it's going to fall off with damp is hardly the flat of a successful writer and teacher. And which writer only has about ten books on his bookshelves? Most annoying of all was having a shelf full of records above the stereo - why on earth would you have the records above the stereo waiting to fall on it rather then under the table the stereo sits on? I hated it.

I also had deep sympathy for the actor that played Robert who wandered round the set naked in the second half and who then knelt down at the front of the stage waiting to be buggered within a foot of the front row of the audience. He had nothing to be embarrassed about expect that none of the other actors even got down to their pants, so it was a bit obvious and hardly fair on the junior actor.

So there you have it, criticisms of the play but more so for the production that was just annoying in various parts. But it's well worth putting this on if only for the historical context. 

'Twilight Song' at Park Theatre

Last week we went to see 'Twilight Song', the last play by Kevin Elyot before he died, at Park Theatre in Finsbury Park. Kevin Elyot wrote 'My Night With Reg' which was revived by the Donmar Warehouse in 2014 before transferring to the West End. Like 'Reg', 'Twilight Song' is full of gay (and possibly bisexual) characters with the exception of the lone woman in the cast (well, as far as the text suggests anyway). It's a small ensemble piece and lasts about 75 minutes and that's the right length for this piece. Warning: SPOILERS.  

It's a tale of a small middle class family of no consequence fifty years apart, set in both 2017 and in 1967. The year 1967 is prominently signalled by references to the Beatles world-wide performance of 'All You Need Is Love' (I wonder how much using that song costs the production?). The play opens in 2017 with an estate agent, Skinner, looking over the old Victorian villa that Barry is interested in selling. He lives there with his mother who is out for the day. After some banter and some truths Barry asks Skinner how he earns the extra money they're talking about and he says he fucks women and men. It is rather out of the blue but does make sense of the almost-flirting earlier. Barry hands over the money and the scene changes to 50 years earlier with newly married Basil (Barry's dad) and Isabella (his mother) having recently moved into the house and taking their Uncle Charles and family friend Harry out to dinner to thank them for their help in buying the house. The two older men are secretly lovers and have been for years.

Through various twists and turns we learn that Harry commits suicide because he is being blackmailed and we also learn that the worker renovating the garden is not only Harry's blackmailer but the father of Barry's younger brother who went missing when he was a baby. Earlier in the play we learn that the gardener wanted a baby and Skinner tells us that his dad came into some money at short notice and emigrated to Australia after his mother died. Coincidence? Or is he family?

The casting probably helps with that question since Adam Garcia plays both Skinner and the gardener and Paul Higgins plays Basil and Barry (i.e. father and son). Bryony Hannah played Isabella in both 1967 and in 2017 - she did good limp with a walker to stress her age but I think the simple addition of a grey wig might've helped. The old blokes were Hugh Ross and Philip Bretherton.

It's a bit of a strange play in many ways and, although it doesn't have the immediacy of 'My Night With Reg', it's stuck in my head.

'My Night With Reg' at the Donmar Warehouse

We went to see 'My Night With Reg', the new production of the Kevin Elyot play from the '90s about a group of friends in the '80s. It's a comedy - a bittersweet and sad comedy - and it had me laughing out loud (yes, even me).

The blurb on the site says:

On its premiere, Kevin Elyot’s Olivier and Evening Standard Award-winning comedy, MY NIGHT WITH REG, defined a moment in the lives of gay men and became an instant classic. For its 20th anniversary, rising star Robert Hastie directs the first major revival.

At Guy’s London flat, old friends and new gather to party through the night. This is the summer of 1985, and for Guy and his circle the world is about to change forever. Deliciously funny and bittersweet, Kevin Elyot’s comedy captures the fragility of friendship, happiness and life itself.

It's a play in three acts, only 1:45 hours long so there's no half time and acts are separated by very effectively turning off the lights for a few seconds. Act one is the scene of Guy's flat warming party which introduces the main characters but we don't meet the mysterious Reg. Act two takes place after Reg's funeral in which we meet two more friends and act three takes place after Guy's funeral. Bit gloomy, eh? Not at all, it's incredibly well observed and terribly funny, full of awkwardness and real life and laugh-out-loud moments.

We meet Guy who everyone likes but no-one loves or lusts after and he welcomes John to his flat warming party while Eric finishes off painting the conservatory. Something's not right and we soon learn that Guy has loved John since university a decade earlier but never said anything. We meet Daniel, Reg's partner, who is supposed to be in Australia but whose flight is delayed, and the scene is set. Lots of kissing and flirting, drinking champagne and remembering the old days. Guy hosts a wake for Reg with a distraught Daniel and a remorseful John (who was having an affair with Reg) and we meet Benny and Bernie, a couple who have each spent time with Reg. And then we go back to Guy's flat after his funeral since he's left it to John and we see John and Eric, the painter and publican, talking about what's happened and John wanting to get into Eric's pants.

The play is full of laugh-out-loud bawdiness and the HIV/AIDs tragedy. Everyone seems to have spent a night with Reg and some have died. That really chimed with me. I've blogged before about the unthinking and irrational fear of HIV and AIDs in the '80s and this play brought it all back, laughing one moment and then having the reality pushed in my face. And that's a good way of getting a message across. Some of the younger people in the audience have probably read about 'the plague' years but I lived through it and remember it.

I thought the cast were excellent, particularly Julian Ovenden as John and Geoffrey Streatfield as Daniel with the easy camaraderie of old friends and Jonathan Broadbent as Guy constantly plumping up the cushions on the couch. It's a very touching and human play about a group of friends against a backdrop of the spread of HIV/AIDs which is never directly mentioned but is referred to and hovers in the background.

There was a sign outside warning us that the play contained nudity and smoking (since when do we need a warning that we'll see someone smoking?) and as soon as I saw Lewis Reeves on stage as Eric, painting Guy's conservatory, I thought aha! he's the one who'll get his kit off since that's what the junior players are for on stage. And I was right - partly. Imagine my surprise when Mr Ovenden strode on stage in his all-over tan for a brief scene with them both naked before returning in his pants and a dressing gown. He's got nothing to be embarrassed about.

Well done to everyone involved in the production. Since it's at the Donmar then that means that it's virtually sold out for the entire run and it's only just opened. There are a few tickets left for matinees but that's about it. Lucky me, I've nabbed tickets to see it again!