DADDY’S FIRST GAY DATE

Seven Dials Playhouse

★★★½

“There are elements of slapstick in the car-crash opening restaurant scene and the tempo rarely slacks”

Is it selfish to leave someone you love to find yourself? This is the central question that underpins Sam Danson’s second play ‘Daddy’s First Gay Date.’ A refreshing and subversive take on the rom-com genre, this two-act play set in the North of England explores bisexual identity and self-acceptance with verve and gusto.

Danson, the playwright and producer, is also a great comic actor. He plays the protagonist Ben – a funny if not somewhat neurotic and nerdy bisexual primary school teacher – with razor sharp wit and great comic timing. The inciting incident which causes the breakup between Ben and his long-term partner Helen (brilliantly played by Megan Edmondson) is also hilarious yet infused with an undertone of pathos; it occurs in a busy restaurant when Helen discovers Ben has engaged in toilet cubicle shenanigans with Tim (exuberantly played by Dior Clarke) a black fem gay man. The stakes of the drama are raised even further as we learn that Helen is not only coping with the fact that her father is suffering from a terminal illness but she is also pregnant. ‘Daddies’ are a recognisable tribe within the LGBTQ+ community but in this instance, Ben is an actual daddy – or at least a daddy- in-waiting.

There are elements of slapstick in the car-crash opening restaurant scene and the tempo rarely slacks. But the play really takes off when Ben and Tim prepare for their Big Night Out. Dressed in a bright, ill-fitted clubbing top and corduroy trousers, Ben cuts an awkward figure on the dance floor whilst Tim, an outwardly proud gay man, struts his stuff with in-yer-face bravado. The dynamic staging of the rave scene and subsequent scenes are down to the artistic vision of award-winning director Rikki Beadle-Blair. His decision to break the fourth wall and have the actors directly engage with members of the audience at key moments in the narrative is also a great one; the audience loved it.

The script also delivers some great caustic one-liners. ‘Who the fuck puts an orgy on Eventbrite’ and ‘Are you sure you’re bisexual? You dress like shit,’ come to mind. However, more attention and consideration could have been given to the set design which was very minimal. And although each character has their own character and narrative arc, I didn’t always buy into the romance between Ben and Tim. I felt some more tender moments between them, and a greater sense of their attraction for each other, would have made the rom part of this rom-com more believable.

That being said, the manner in which the rom-com genre is subverted in the penultimate scene is a stroke of pure genius. And the experience of sexual racism and racism per se that Tim’s character alludes to in the play helps to give greater depth to the piece without overshadowing the comedy.

If you’re looking for a fun night out, ‘Daddy’s First Gay Date’ often hits the mark. And within the wider canon of LGBTQ+ theatre this raucous rom com offers a unique take on one man’s journey of self-acceptance and sexual liberation.

DADDY’S FIRST GAY DATE

★★★½

Seven Dials Playhouse

DADDY’S FIRST GAY DATE

Seven Dials Playhouse

★★★½

“There are elements of slapstick in the car-crash opening restaurant scene and the tempo rarely slacks”