What a Gay Play

Andrew J Davies
Ben Conway Presents
C Chambers Street

What's the chance of a play with the word "gay" in the title, playing at 11:00 at night, with a bar, dance music and the potential of seeing naked men, what’s the chance of it failing?

That’s not to say that this production hasn’t earned its stripes. It is a solid play if a little thin on plot. There the requisite spatting but doesn’t seem to wound.

Seven men (boys) meet for an evening’s party. Matt (Chris Barlow) welcomes and interacts with the audience while doing household chores in preparation for this evening’s event. He’s perfect for the task.

Matt shares the flat and his life with the much-sought Lee (Adam Lee Mroz). All the characters are well written and played.

Director Dan Phillips has made some very interest choices. The lights snap to blue and the music comes up as the actors dance and interact with each other. This is to indicate a change in time. The evening wears on.

It is a unique device which works very well. Matt also has some asides to the audience which work well but as a dramatic tool, we could have more. The audience loves it.

There is no blood-letting, no eye-scratching, and little scrapping. A good time was had by all. And we get what we want; to see them in dancing in the buff as a finale. Really… what could be bad?

Reviewer: Catherine Lamm

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