This Queer House  ☆☆
The Vaults Festival

The show has an intriguing premise; Ollie (played by Liv Ello) and Leah (played by Humaira Iqbal) are a young queer couple who have inherited a large old house and a joint renovation project begins. Time progresses, and they struggle to settle into their new home, the doorbell rings and no one is there, the dog acts up, stops eating and then runs off. Leah has been hearing “strange noises within the walls” hey – even the pigeons in the garden are anxious!

These strange occurrences threaten to drive a wedge between them as they worry they are “old before our time”.

The appearance of the builder (played by the versatile Lucia Young) threatens to pull on the thread of their relationship even further as Ollie who identifies as non-binary says having this person in the house is disconcerting and “makes me feel masc”.

The show then becomes quite peculiar in form and style which only occasionally helped to create a spooky atmosphere. They appear to be visited by characters from the house’s past including a 50’s housewife and twin children (reminiscent of the two girls from the Shining) whose presence illuminates the couple’s current situation.

At one point Leah says; “The house is just a house; it bears no consequence”. The play attempts to use the house as a vehicle to challenge social norms of homemaking, coupledom and having to make choices from our youthful ideals and the compromises we make as we get older.

There were problems during this performance: cues were continuously off or missed, including vital sound effects, and the general stage craft was sometimes sloppy. When an actor accidentally kicks a bucket on stage and the audience laughs and then gets restless its disappointing because This Queer House attempts to explore some really important themes in an imaginative way.

Writer: Oakley Flanagan
Director: Masha Kevinovna

Until March 1st

https://vaultfestival.com/whats-on/this-queer-house/

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