Tag Archives: Jacob Trenerry

Safe Sex

SAFE SEX

★★★★★

VAULT Festival 2020

Safe Sex

Safe Sex

Network Theatre

Reviewed – 10th March 2020

★★★★★

 

“the production captures the sense of hysteria which defined the lives and loves of a generation of gay men”

 

The trauma of living through the AIDS crisis has been covered well in the theatre from the hard-hitting musicality of “Rent” and “Falsettos” to the powerful no-nonsense “The Normal Heart” and “Angels in America.”

Harvey Fierstein’s restless comedy-drama “Torch Song Trilogy” played its own important part in the charge in 1981, while his lesser-known “Safe Sex” trilogy (three separate plays rather than one play in three acts like its predecessor) appeared on Broadway in 1987, only receiving a partial UK premiere in 2014.

As part of the VAULT Festival, Network Theatre concentrates on one-third of that trilogy in its staging of “Safe Sex,” a 40-minute piece that stands alone rather well mixing dramatic intensity with Fierstein’s lighter touches.

It features two young men who were once in a relationship, went their separate ways, then got together again but this isn’t a tragedy about one catching AIDS and both living with the consequences. Rather this is about how a fear of the disease affects those living in its shadow and how sexual relationships are altered by the spectre of the deadly virus constantly hovering in the background.

The night of romance turns into a reminiscence about the carefree days of sexual encounters prior to the disease becoming widespread and how AIDS affected so radically the lives of those touched by it without having it. In those days, as the characters point out, “the worst you could get from loving somebody was a broken heart.”

For one, Ghee (a vulnerable Sam Neal, laying down the rules to prevent the transmission of AIDS, but revealing his own sense of inadequacy and needy nervousness), the desire for playing things safe and taking necessary precautions becomes more of an excuse to avoid intimacy, as years of repressed anger and hidden memories are unleashed. Neal manages to tackle Fierstein’s big speeches without ever once making them sound like the preaching of a lecture or a rant.

The other person in the relationship is Mead (George White blending tough love with a simmering sensuality), who has to spend most of the play being criticised about his perceived lack of cleanliness (“I’ve seen dogs fall in love with grass where you’ve walked barefoot” jests his partner).

In the trading of insults there is much to laugh at as well as a great deal to think about and the production captures the sense of hysteria which defined the lives and loves of a generation of gay men.

The original production used a giant see-saw as a set and in an odd decision director Jacob Trenerry, who otherwise succeeds in making the drama feel absolutely contemporary and relevant to today, sets the action on what is supposed to be a see-saw but is in fact a large white plank resting on two black boxes, with a flimsy piece of card (which fell off) representing the fulcrum. It’s disappointing as it means the emotional ups and downs aren’t reflected by the non-operating teeter-totter at all and things remain too static.

That said, the venue and encompassing festival are a perfect setting for a revival of this important play and the production allows the anger and fear about an epidemic to resonate in an era where anything goes.

 

Reviewed by David Guest

 

VAULT Festival 2020

 

 

Click here to see all our reviews from VAULT Festival 2020

 

Kafka’s Dick – 4 Stars

Dick

Kafka’s Dick

Upstairs at the Gatehouse

Reviewed – 26th June 2018

★★★★

“Jacob Trenerry’s Kafka is particularly convincing “

 

In Prague in 1919, Franz Kafka tells his friend Max Brod that he is dying. He’s said this before, as Max points out, but this time he means it and he has a dying wish. Kafka asks Max to burn his life’s works and Max promises to do so. Meanwhile, in 1980s suburbia, Sydney is writing an article on his beloved Kafka, though he is more interested in Kafka’s life than Kafka’s works. Sydney and Kafka have a lot in common after all, careers in insurance and a dislike of their own names, for example. He is justifiably shocked therefore, when Max Brod, Franz Kafka and later Hermann Kafka turn up at his front door, but not as shocked as Kafka when he realises the extent of his fame, the volumes of his own work (none of which were burnt) and the volumes of work about him, both about his literary achievements and about the size of his penis.

Alan Bennett’s text is witty, intelligent and investigative. He asks questions about literary fame, and the way that authors are remembered in a fun and accessible way that escalates as it progresses.

Philip Ley’s set design is lovely, a backdrop of slanting white book shelves filled with red and black volumes, sandwiched by the front and back of a white car. The effect is simultaneously striking yet minimal.

The cast are predominantly strong and work well together. Peter Novis potters in and out as ‘Father’, a bumbling comic figure veiling a sad, confused elderly man, desperately committing to memory the facts of Kafka’s life in a vein attempt to avoid being taken away. Witty and poignant at once, this is a grounding line of humanity even as the play escalates. Jacob Trenerry’s Kafka is particularly convincing and treads well the border between Bennett’s colliding worlds of realism and absurdity.

There are some clumsy moments, but I’m sure these will be ironed out as the run continues. There are also some issues with pace that occasionally leave moments of humour falling flat. The pace is essential, because the play is so reliant on this being consistently built up so that the lift-off into the complete absurdity of the finish can be achieved successfully. A more slick performance with a greater emphasis on creating this momentum would really help the piece achieve its full potential.

Fun, irreverent and increasingly absurd, Bennett is a fantastic writer and this production delivers his work with commitment and wit.

 

Reviewed by Amelia Brown

Photography by Robert Piwko

 


Kafka’s Dick

Upstairs at the Gatehouse until 30th June

 

Related
Previously reviewed at this venue
A Night at the Oscars | ★★★★ | February 2018
After the Ball | ★★★ | March 2018
Return to the Forbidden Planet | ★★★ | May 2018

 

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