FOAM ⚝⚝⚝⚝⚝
Foam is a brilliant new play on at London’s ground-breaking, award-winning Finborough Theatre in Earls Court, a theatre that’s been specialising in new and rediscovered plays since 1980.
The debut play from playwright Harry McDonald, Foam, is loosely based on the life of infamous gay skinhead Londoner Nicky Crane, whom we follow from 1974 to 1993. The play examines identity and the intersection of different identities, principally when an extreme neo-Nazi, closeted gay skinhead meets various queer people in 1970s and 1980s London. The play is split over five acts, each of which is set in a different public toilet, ranging from park toilets to nightclub toilets and others. We first meet Nicky in 1974, aged 15, shaving his head with a razor in a men’s public toilet, apparently to get some peace from his crowded household of ten other family members. There he meets well-dressed thirty-something Mosley (Matthew Baldwin). They strike up a conversation and bond over a cigarette, toilet door peepholes, poppers and fascism. Nicky denies he’s gay but Mosley knows better. Events in the toilet become dramatic. We then move onto (no spoilers) the four other, equally powerful acts, which zoom in on other details of Nicky’s closeted queer, but not closeted fascist life.
McDonald’s intense script accurately captures a time when identity was in many ways more basic and literal. Echoes from the past remain for sure, and the resurgence of right-wing ideologies and fascism around the world makes this play very relevant for today. Directed by Matthew Iliffe, Foam has one of the best sets I’ve seen in a while. Credit to set designer Nitin Parmer for this. This, combined with excellent script, casting and performances, an evocative soundtrack by David Segun Olowu and innovative, brutal, fight and intimacy scenes by Jess Tucker Boyd, means that you’re in for a treat. Jake Richards is very strong at capturing the evolution of Nicky from a bullish, yet vulnerable, fifteen-year-old through to the ferocious, violent, troubled man he became. Matthew Baldwin, Kishore Walker and Keanu Adolphus Johnson are a great support in the various compelling characters they play – variously a fascist, porn actor, criminal, nurse and photographer. A tense, unpredictable gem.
The play was sold out on a rainy Tuesday night and received a standing ovation. So grab a ticket while you can.
Queerguru’s 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
