You’re Going To Die. ⚝⚝⚝⚝
London’s Southwark Playhouse.
Death, loss and anxiety, three unavoidable human conditions, are examined by the completely naked Adam Scott-Rowley, in his intense, very entertaining, monologue, You’re Going To Die, currently on at London’s excellent Southwark Playhouse. Part performance art, part theatre, we meet the nude Scott-Rowley, alone on the stage, sitting on a toilet, grunting and grimacing as the big themes of life batter him. He gets off the toilet and over the course of the next hour, with amazing body language, assumes various characters, all contemplating existential anxiety. There’s the little old lady whose cat has just died, the young man stuck alone down a deep well, a Welsh farmer who’s just lost a few sheep, a northern comedian whose wife has just died, and what seems (to me at least) like a young man lost in a dark room in a techno club. Maybe the last one isn’t such a big drama.
Scott-Rowley has a fierce presence, but he offsets this and the dark subject matter with comedic body language and a hilarious script, co-written with Joseph Prowen and Tom Morley. His nakedness adds human vulnerability to the mix, to give a full account of the human condition. Sweating, bleeding, shitting, cumming, pissing, crying and rimming, all bodily functions are here on stage. Our humanity is dissected, with the idea, I imagine, of negating fears about death and anxiety. We’re all going to die, so why be scared of it? The combination of fear and humour is very British. Beautifully dark, atmospheric lighting by Matt Cater and a minimal tech soundtrack by Sam Baxter add to the mix. Scott-Rowley is excellent – the ability to command an audience whilst alone and naked on stage is rare. The audience is gradually broken down so that by the end, the whole theatre is happily singing along about having a dildo stuck up our arses. We don’t care about anything anymore. Theatrical therapy.
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
