βI canβt deal with being your dirty secret.β
This is a play about love, but really, itβs about how love isnβt enough. We meet Ash and Lucy, both at the beginning and end of their relationship, flashing between the two, waiting for one to inevitably explain the other. Ultimately, despite having a genuine affection and care for one another, these two are doomed. The homophobia amongst which weβve all grown up is not something you can simply shirk off; itβs toxic and invasive, getting in your head, making you afraid. Ruining relationships. Keeping you lonely.
ZoeΜ Birkbeck and Lydia Cashman have a sincere chemistry which seems to grow organically on stage as their relationship progresses, all the way from awkwardly friendly to intensely intimate. The dialogue is warm and engaging, full of quippy back-and-forths, and writer Natasha Brotherdale Smith does well to flesh out these characters in only an hour.
Staging is non-existent really, barring a large metal chest full of props, but it turns out thatβs all thatβs needed for such an intensely character-based narrative.
In the past few years, Theatre503 has become the gold standard for pub theatre, and new writing to boot. It turns out, you donβt have to trawl out the same ten famous playwrights over and again to make a hit. I Canβt Hear you is a perfect example of how vital new writing is, bringing further nuance and empathy to the LGBTQ+ experience, along with plenty of wit and charm.
As is often the case when watching a drama based on a chronological approach, Boris the character is obscured behind the progression of events, and the audience is left trying to figure out whether there was ever a grand plan in mind, which might have served as the basis for a plot. Or is Boris Rex just a study of the eponymous characterβs ruthless grasping of opportunities whenever and wherever they might appear? Even Time himself, who makes a brief appearance to pull things together, does not throw much light on the matter. But perhaps the point of Boris Rex is just to tell the all too familiar story of a man who reaches for the stars without having much reason to do so, other than to satisfy his own longings for distinction.
Reviewed by Dominica Plummer
Photography by Paddy Gormley
Boris Rex
Tristan Bates Theatre until 12th August as part of Camden Fringe 2019
