Quentin Crisp; Naked Hope ☆☆☆☆
Kings Head Theatre

Quentin Crisp; Naked Hope draws much of its material from Crisps autobiography “The Naked Civil Servant”. It follows a similar format as the show Quentin Crisp himself devised back in the 70’s (an amusing autobiographical monologue followed by a relaxed question and answer session with the audience) and is packed full of juicy quotes. He was a master of the soundbite way before TV and 24-hour news cycles were invented.

This stage version written and performed by Mark Farrelly covers two distinct phases of Crisps astonishing life. We see his London life in the late 1960s in a Chelsea flat he resolutely refused to clean; “After the first four years the dirt won’t get any worse”. Crisp looks back on his life so far, full of degradation, rejection and violence created in the “furnace of my fathers hatred”. He was repeatedly beaten for being flamboyantly gay as early as the 1930s, but also rejected by society for “daring to live life on his own terms”. A fascinating moment is when he describes walking through Soho (bright red hair, silk scarves, painted nails on both hands and feet) and how crowds would automatically follow him, traffic would actually stop, a police intervention would inevitably follow. He is once prosecuted for solicitation and “performs” his own defence – needless to say he was acquitted.

The second part of the play transitions the audience to New York in the 1990s. Stings “Alien in New York” hit song had catapulted him into a ‘second career’ as a celebrity at the age of 70 years old. “The toast of the town”. Here Crisp has finally found his niche in the Bowery of Manhattan “Where everyone who isn’t shooting you is your friend”.

He regales the audience with his sharply-observed, hard-earned philosophy on how to have a lifestyle: “Life will be more difficult if you try to become yourself. But avoiding this difficulty renders life meaningless. So discover who you are. And be it. Like mad!”. Dispensing pearls of wisdom and “style” advice he was an influencer before the internet existed, cracking “the smiling and nodding racket”.

His idiosyncrasy stands out. Crisp was gleefully but diametrically opposed to the “love yourself” generation, nor was he a supporter of gay rights or Pride – seeing homosexuality as an illness; “If we didn’t suffer how do we know were alive?” This would have certainly created a huge problem for the LGBTQ community now (not him!) if he were still alive.

Mark Farrelly is enthralling as Crisp. This is no imitation or impersonation but rather he takes the essence of Crisp and delivers it to us in the here and now. Farrelly frequently breaks the fourth wall which suits the character and heightens the content telling people not to yawn, or on a late laugh “keep up!”. The nicely paced first act, however, gives way to a rather inward looking final act where sadly the pace drops off a cliff saved only by some hilarious and deftly handled audience participation.

Farrelly reminds us that Quentin Crisp never gave up hope (hence the title) and poignantly we learn that Quentin Crisp performed his one man show on this very stage at the Kings Head Theatre and that he died twenty years ago this Thursday (21st November).

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