Very Special Guest Star ☆☆☆☆
https://www.omnibus-clapham.org
The best of British theatre often takes place in a drawing-room and acclaimed playwright Tom Wright’s new play Very Special Guest Star continues in that fine tradition. Following sold-out runs of Undetectable and My Dad’s Gap Year, Wright’s darkly comedic, sexy and thought-provoking play is currently on at London’s cute Clapham Omnibus Theatre.
We follow a middle-aged gay couple in a long-term relationship as they try to rekindle the wilder times of their youth, with unexpected consequences. Covering themes including sex, race, guilt, long-term relationships, adoption, and parenthood, this is a play many different people can relate to.
Michael (Alan Turkington) and Phil (Edd Muruako) have been together for 16 years and in the earlier part of their relationship had an adventurous sex life, often playing with other men, both together and separately. Life – parenthood, careers, and aging – however, gets in the way, and for the past six years, they have been living in a relative sexual desert, with their adopted son Noah taking the bulk of their energies.
Tonight is different though, with Noah away at a sleep-over, and at a rare night out in a local nightclub, they pick up a young guy and bring him back to their house for a threesome.
Enter sexy Quasim (Jonny Khan), a young 20 year-old cocksure London chap who’s up for fun.
The age gap and length of time since they last played around, plus Quasim’s subsequent admission that he is relatively sexually inexperienced, means that the three men take a little time to chat and get to know each other before entering into some sexual role-playing. This leads to some rather unexpected revelations as the couple discovers a few rather uncomfortable facts about themselves and former refugee Quasim.
Director Rikki Beadle-Blair has taken Wright’s fast-paced, topical and original script and together with excellent acting and chemistry between Turkington, Muruako, and Khan, has created a very entertaining play that will stick with you long after you’ve left the theatre. Set designer Natalie Johnson has cleverly used the Omnibus space including using real ground floor windows looking out on to the street. Although the characters are all gay, the play would work equally well if the characters were heterosexual – family life is family life, regardless of the sexuality of the parents. Michael’s lament “I signed up for a kid, not hetero-normative suburbia.” is potentially applicable to any parent. It’s good to see this evolution of the sexuality of characters becoming secondary in queer theatre and film-making. Highly recommended.
On at the Clapham Omnibus Theatre, London until 12th December
https://www.omnibus-clapham.org
Review: Ris Fatah Queerguru Contributing Editor Ris Fatah is a successful fashion/luxury business consultant (when he can be bothered) who divides and wastes his time between London and Ibiza. He is a lover of all things queer, feminist, and human rights in general. @ris.fatah
