'If his chest had been a cannon he would have shot his heart upon that beast'

This is a little gem, a hard glittering bevelled thing, which, the more you turn it, the more it gleams.  This is the story of Billy Budd the sailor, told by one man, in his bath. The bath, along with the audience is in a bathroom, and the bathroom and audience are in a house, a normal (although rather tastefully decorated) house in Brighton.  

The man is naked, he is actor Martin Lewton, he speaks of the difficulty of expression, of the power of words and the ultimate power of the failure to speak and the consequences of action.  The naked man in the bath shaves himself as he shaves the words, to get closer to their meaning, to feel the lethal smoothness of their razor edge.  Our comfort zones are shaved, this is an intimate experience but also one with great distance.  Things are kept at distance, so far away, but so close, things stalk that bath. The story is about Billy Budd, but also about Herman Melville, the (married) author and (closeted) bender who wrote Moby Dick, and dedicated that great book to his gentleman companion Nathanial Hawthorne, and like Moby Dick this play seethes with bathetic writhing monsters of the abyss but also reminds that deep deep down we are all very shallow.

We are in the bathroom, the named homo (for it’s acclaimed ‘Theatre North’ and ‘The Naked Homo’ doing this show) is exposing the secrets, subtexts, desires and wants of the strong passions of the men who work alongside poor doomed Billy Budd, the handsome sailor.  The naked man in the bath fades out, like a lighthouse in the fog and we are drawn into this story, in the moist warm air of its life before being dashed on the rocks of the sad and chilling dénouement.

Did I like this? Yes I did. Is it good theatre? Yes it is.  It’s a compelling (and delightfully short -50 mins) piece of intense 'from the heart' theatre,  and Director Andrew McKinnon has thought this piece though carefully. The balance is just right, I was by turns amused, concerned, intrigued and then as the story builds up, lost in the subtext of this play, and there’s more than one level to it. I suspect this is intentional.  You forget very quickly that you’re in a bathroom, you’re transported into the hulking, creaking decks of HMS Bellipotent, heaving with press ganged sailors and repressed desires.  But the close, warm confines of the bathroom only seem to give this story a bigger reach and I found myself musing about speech, expression, and the way in which how we say what we say can have the most profound influence on our lives.  As a youth who suffered the rage and torment of a stutter that reduced me to brooding silence and who learnt that careful precise expression can be directed into a stream of metaphorical bliss, I was touched by this play, but if all you want is a damn good night out and something interesting to talk about at dinner the next day, then book now, Quickly, as I suspect this might be one of the hits of this years fringe.

A perfect piece of Fringe Theatre, odd, short, punchy, enjoyable and something worth leaving the house for.  Well done Theatre North!

To book tickets or for more info here: