Jerker ☆☆☆☆
Kings Head Theatre, London
Talking dirty is the safest form of safe-sex there is. When the AIDS crisis began to sweep through the US , alternative means of sexual expression were required by gay men who saw it not as a replacement but perhaps complimentary way of reducing rather than eliminating risk in their lives.
In this unapologetically explicit piece there are just two characters: Bert and J.R. who are described in the notes as two “San Francisco faggots who are beautiful, loving, sexy men” with facial hair that is in “the extravagant, fanciful styles of the Old West….Their eyes are alive and their voices are relaxed and gentle”. Bert (Tibu Fortes) and J.R. (Tom Joyner – whose ‘guilty-face’ is the highpoint of the evening) have this down pat as they stretch and cavort alone on their individual beds, gleaming skin, toned muscles, glorious moustaches shining under the lights.
They start an anonymous relationship via phone calls where sexual arousal forms the main purpose until they begin to get to know each other, playtime stories become bedtime stories, they support each other and in the end find they love each other.
The subtitle to the play is “A Pornographic Elegy with Redeeming Social Value and a Hymn to the Queer Men of San Francisco in Twenty Telephone Calls, Many of them Dirty” and the show is 80% highly detailed description of various gay sex acts – a push back against society’s long held stigma. Walking in off the streets of Islington on a cold wet night in November, it can take a moment to adjust to vivid descriptions of anal sex and light S&M.
As the play progresses, however, and the amazing balance between earnestness and humour that both Fortes and Joyner bring alongside the inventive and precise direction by Ben Anderson, means we acclimatise soon enough, like your eyes in a back-room. Apparently.
The sound design by Tingying Dong is tangible and evocative, supporting the action in the bedrooms or in the palaces or woodland of one of their rich fantasy sequences plus a disco-tastic soundtrack from Donna Summer to Divine puts us right there in San Francisco with the guys.
Jerker as a play is not without its flaws. Its quite limited in the endless tennis of the two hander, two bedrooms, back and forth. It achieves a degree of theatrical magic when the two characters ‘meet’ in a beautifully realised dream sequence and by this point we have travelled a journey with the pair and the connection is so strong, supportive and beautiful Chesley has perfectly positioned us for the sadness that is yet to come as real life intrudes.
Adam Spreadbury-Maher (artistic director of the Kings Head Theatre) bounced on stage before curtain up to tell us that Jerker was performed in the UK in 1990 (directed by Stephen Daldry) after it premiered in the USA but was pulled after only 3 performances.
Likewise in the US, a radio performance attracted legal action (where it was found to be indecent and possibly obscene) and resulted in the tightening of the rules for radio just when a frank exchange of information was most needed to limit the spread of the virus. As a slice of LGBTQ history, however, and as a first-hand account of the horrors our community faced in those dark days, it is a play to be cherished. Chesley (who died of AIDS aged 47) is quoted as saying “Prudery kills…no-one ever died from being offended by what they see or hear”.
JERKER
Written by Robert Chesley
October 30 -November 23rd 2019
https://www.kingsheadtheatre.com/
REVIEW : JONNY WARDJonny 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
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