FOAM at the Finborough Theatre

★★★★

“The execution of the story is fascinating and the reflection on the punk and queer scene of the time is illuminating”

Foam is a biographical story about a gay neo-Nazi from 1974 to 1993. We follow his life through a series of conversations with other gay men, all taking place in a public toilet from the day he shaves his head to… the final bathroom. The show depicts racially sensitive subject matter, homophobia and violence (Jess Tucker Boyd as fight director). Some of the conversations are up for interpretation with regards to the takeaway message.

The audience enter to the sounds of a dripping echoey lavatory (David Segun Olowu). The room is plunged into darkness as startling punk music clangs around the intimate Finborough Theatre, with the audience sat on three sides. Lights up on Nicky with shaving foam on his head. Written by Harry McDonald and directed by Mathew Lliffe, Foam is an intense, cerebral and provocative examination of the dichotomous person that was Nicky Crane. The conversations are wide ranging; confrontational, sexually charged and also humorous as Nicky tries to connect with other queer men through the changing eras of the punk and gay clubbing scene.

The set is evocative and timeless with its industrial white tiled walls, blurry mirrors and fixtures of a public convenience (Nitin Parmar). It is lit with atmospheric colours and makes use of the glazed windows above and light seeping through the centre stage cubical. Colours creep into scenes slowly, before you notice the ‘rosey tint’ of Nicky’s memories (Jonathan Chan).

“Walker multi-roles these characters with tension and levity opposite Richards who is terrifying and desperate

McDonald takes artistic license as Nicky Crane (Jake Richards) meets Mosely (Matthew Baldwin), fascism incarnate, who seduces Nicky in more ways than one. Baldwin is electric and commanding whilst Richards is an unsure but intrigued teenager. Whilst gripping and absorbing, the blurring of homosexual awakening and right-wing radicalisation could be considered an unfair comparison, but others may read into the scene differently. Later on, we meet characters who seem attracted to Nicky’s ‘look’ in the form of Gabriel and Christopher (Kishore Walker) who display a nonchalant attitude to his skinhead identity. The play presents affronting examination of LGBTQ individuals who tolerate and entertain the hypocrisy of Nicky, even liking what he represents. Nicky can only exist as a Nazi if there are other gay people who choose to ignore or fetishise his tattoos and worldview. Walker multi-roles these characters with tension and levity opposite Richards who is terrifying and desperate.

A scene that provokes interrogation is that of Bird (Keanu Adolphus Johnson), a black gay man who Nicky corners in a club bathroom. The two men discuss Nicky’s crimes, which were unmentioned until this point, his targets including a nine year old. This is the only time Nicky and the audience is confronted with an overt rejection of right wing extremism and the impact of his crimes on victims, which bares noting. Johnson presents Bird as strong and secure in his queerness and in his rejection of Nicky in a powerful argument. The bravery of Bird is admirable, but potentially defangs the stakes of what Nicky represents. The final scene brings back Baldwin as Craig, a kind loving figure, starkly different to Mosely.

Foam tackles Crane’s life with depth and precision. In a story about neo-Nazis and hypocrisy, there was less focus on the consequences of his hate crimes and more on his strange double life and the people that populated it. The execution of the story is fascinating and the reflection on the punk and queer scene of the time is illuminating. The cast were superb and transfixing under Lliffe’s direction. Nicky Crane was a real man who committed hate crimes. There remains some discussion to be had about what the show was trying to say, and who got to say it. But It is clear that the play definitely invites these important conversations.

FOAM at the Finborough Theatre

Reviewed on 4th April 2024

by Jessica Potts

Photography by Craig Fuller

Previously reviewed at this venue:

JAB | ★★★★ | February 2024

THE WIND AND THE RAIN | ★★★ | July 2023

SALT-WATER MOON | ★★★★ | January 2023

PENNYROYAL | ★★★★ | July 2022

THE STRAW CHAIR | ★★★ | April 2022

THE SUGAR HOUSE | ★★★★ | November 2021

FOAM

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★★★

“his command of accents and impersonation is considerable.”

During Nick Cohen’s “Life with Oscar”, we are increasingly reminded of the old aphorism concerning barks and bites. Or perhaps, more appropriately, that thing about tins and what is said on them. Cohen may be barking mad, but his seventy-minute show about his experiences in Hollywood doesn’t have the bite we were expecting. The marketing copy promises something more dangerous; darker and more revelatory.

Perhaps the anecdotal material is spread too thin. He adopts thirty-one characters in little over an hour after all. He begins as himself, affable and self-deprecatory. A self-confessed wannabe director and actor. Betraying his ‘Theatre de Complicité’ training he whirls us backwards and forwards in time with sharp movements, and his command of accents and impersonation is considerable. It’s quite convoluted, but the main thrust of the narrative is that he is invited to Hollywood by a double Oscar winner who promises Cohen a short cut to his own Oscar win. Preceding this, though, we spend a fair chunk of the evening in the company of the child Cohen – precocious yet naïve, and programmed to fulfil the failed dreams of his celebrity parents.

The dream that Cohen takes to ‘La La Land’ with him is an unformed idea for a short film. The escapades that follow are similarly unformed and sometimes anticlimactic. And although we are asked to believe that each anecdote is verbatim, we are aware of the artistic licence taken. And therein lies the frustration. Cohen plays with the truth too gently. We are enticed by the promise of portraits of the psychopaths, the crazies, the predators and the prey. A descent into the madness of Tinseltown. But it is gentler than that. A comfortable performer, Cohen doesn’t always have a tight hold on our attention and the multitude of characters often pass by in a blur.

He has chosen a theme that is well documented already on film and in modern literature. We are obviously not expecting the outrageous excess of Damien Chazelle’s ‘Babylon’, nor the incisive prose of Budd Schulberg’s ‘The Disenchanted’. However, we are let down by Cohen’s inconsequential and indulgent writing. Writing that never quite hits its target. He talks of eventually escaping Hollywood, yet we never get the sense that he was trapped there. He equates his producer friend’s illusory promise of securing him an Oscar with the failure of the American Dream. This self-aggrandising is at odds with the self-deprecating modesty that informs the comedy of the piece – Cohen is better at mocking himself than the famous names he keeps dropping.

“Life with Oscar” isn’t quite what it says on the tin. Cohen has prised open the lid to give us a glimpse of what might be inside, but we are left thinking that he has less to tell us than what’s on the label. He can certainly spin a yarn, though, and the show is peppered with good humour. But ultimately a bit of an anti-climax.

FOAM at the Finborough Theatre

★★★★

“The execution of the story is fascinating and the reflection on the punk and queer scene of the time is illuminating”

“Walker multi-roles these characters with tension and levity opposite Richards who is terrifying and desperate

FOAM at the Finborough Theatre

Reviewed on 4th April 2024

by Jessica Potts

Photography by Craig Fuller

Previously reviewed at this venue:

FOAM

FOAM

LIFE WITH OSCAR at the Arcola Theatre

★★★

“his command of accents and impersonation is considerable.”

LIFE WITH OSCAR at the Arcola Theatre

Reviewed on 3rd April 2024

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by G Taylor

Previously reviewed at this venue:

LIFE WITH OSCAR

LIFE WITH OSCAR