Grindr The Opera ☆☆☆☆☆
Above The Stag
How is your sex life? Getting any? Has the hookup app revolution brought you untold carnal riches? Or has technology synced up with gay men’s inability to practice portion control and created an unstoppable monster? Tonight Grindr the Opera asks these questions and a whole load more. Let’s meet the boys……
Devon (played with suitably irritating sincerity by David Malcolm) is a hesitant gay who is 6 months single after a break-up. He thinks he might give Grindr a try but seems to not quite get its raison d’etre as he worries about his spelling when messaging! (Omg I h8 that…)
Tom (the charismatic Matthew Grove skilfully bringing depth but also emotional baggage to the party) is outwardly confident and prefers to stay ‘no strings attached’. Is homely Devon the man to help lower his guard and then his pants?
Jack (an adeptly feisty but naive William Spencer) describes himself as a Twink and a power bottom. He knows just how the app works and how to take the best selfie to fulfill his not inconsiderable sexual appetite. Is the older Don the daddy he has been looking for or is randy Jack way out of his depth?
Don (the delightfully vicious Dereck Walker) is a straight-laced conservative married (to a woman) and a father of two. He’s driven, successful, ruthless and ON GRINDR!! Well more about him later.
A song called ManHunt namechecks all the tribes (bears, otters, twinks etc), how Grindr works, and the complex etiquette that goes with it. We meet Grindr himself – yes indeed the digital phenomenon (nicely echoed in the ultraviolet 0 and 1’s painted on the rather lovely set by David Shields) is made flesh and sings “There’s an App for that – and it’s me!”
Eventually, Grindr facilitates the two couples getting together. Don steals the show with his number “We fornicate”. A demented Gilbert & Sullivan style shagfest where Don and Jack have risky violent/rough sex and the other two seem to make a go of it, moving in with each other only for it to eventually fall apart. Grindr sings “They think they leave me when they delete me” but the truth is apps never leave. It’s true! How annoying is it that they are always there, lurking, ready to spring up again at a time of weakness – yes a bit like herpes! In fact, the emotional sucker punch actually comes when Jack is diagnosed at the HIV clinic with something that “will change his life forever”.
Erik Ransom’s
songs are good, melodic and varied in style; the lyrics (Erik again) are fluffy and funny but occasionally pierce deeper. For example when closeted Tory boy Don says “I want to love and destroy these boys…” you get a sense of the terrible but particular danger hookup app culture presents from predators such as the Stephen Port the serial killer. Evil deeds happened long before Grindr came along, however. Liberating as they are, hook up apps maybe just exacerbate a pre-existing problem and now we all learn about it? As Grindr sings “It makes the good turn bad and the bad turn evil!”
Grindr: The Opera
4 July – 26 August (Main House)
by Erik Ransom
directed by Andrew Beckett
REVIEW: JONNY WARD
Jonny Ward, Queerguru London Correspondent is a drama graduate but has worked backstage for many years at venues such as The Royal Albert Hall, The 02, Southbank Centre and is currently at The National Theatre. He lives in Hoxton, London and is delighted to check out the latest, the hottest and the downright dodgy in queer culture for Queerguru. (P.S. He is currently single)
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