Alpha Who ☆☆☆

Cockpit Theatre, London

Alpha Who? is a one man show billed as an exploration of masculinity and vulnerability and we are certainly taken on a journey of angst and rage of the inner psyche of the protagonist played by writer/performer Matt Franco. He comes on backlit, stripped to the waist, a vision of black curly hair and glistening skin carrying a timber panel on his back like Jesus carrying His cross.

The majority of the performance consists purely of a stream of consciousness style monologue – think Mel Gibson in in the 1997 flick Conspiracy Theory and you’ll get the idea. There is no obvious plot but there are some character types, perhaps facets of the same character, but it was a format that soon became tedious.

The piece really came alive when Franco’s undoubted movement skills are brought to the fore such as the extraordinary gravity defying shapes he creates  when he imitates water and “floats like an emotional ninja” or when he creates a butterfly out of a small notebook – Peter Brook style.

He also namechecks Hunter S Thompson, Kafka and Quentin Tarantino, all of which despite their eclectic nature does actually make sense and their influences can be seen particularly in the blending of the realistic and the fantastical as he narrates various incidents on his psychological journey.

One scene, which will surely live on in the memory of many of the audience is when he urinates blood into a glass jar – it’s a powerful theatrical moment attempting to link emissions of the body and the mind. With his soft Italian accent washing over us, as he asks a series of rhetorical questions such as “how much feminine is allowed within the masculine?” I doubt Franco has the answers but this was an heart felt, mercifully brief, hour of theatre by a proto performer to watch out for.

Alpha Who?
Creator and performer: Matt Franco
Director: Gail Sixsmith
Until August 9th 2019

https://www.thecockpit.org.uk/

REVIEW : JONNY WARD

Jonny Ward, Queerguru Contributing Editor 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)  @JonnyWard360