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REVIEW: FILM: Coming Out

Coming Out

Dryades Films/Upside Films

Released to coincide with National Coming Out Day ( 11 October ) the film Coming Out follows a very simple but modern formula – video messages and conversations.

In its 64 minutes it allows people of all nationalities and sexual orientations to tell us their stories, but more poignantly, to tell their parents. Mostly the very short sessions are directed at mothers – some present and some on a video or phone link.

The reactions are varied – some immediate acceptance, some puzzled confusion, some outright disturbing hatred and in one case physical violence on camera .

These are reactions well known to our LGBTQ+ communities, but nonetheless still uplifting or frighteningly disturbing depending on the outcome.

What is clear in Denis Parrot’s touchingly intimate film is we have come a long way and we have also got nowhere.

There are some very familiar attitudes and viewpoints which the film doesn’t comment on – it just lets us see both sides, though obviously its meant to be both supportive and enlightening.

So we are exposed to the popular idea of “ it’s your choice “ as if being gay was as simple as how we decide what shoes to wear or what meal to eat. Sometimes the parental version of this is meant to be sympathetic but more often than not what the film shows is the deep chasm of misunderstanding that still exists for people wanting to be honest about their sexuality.

Not surprisingly we also often get the mother’s smiling reaction of “ I’ve  known all along “ and “ why didn’t you tell me before ? “ The answers are inevitably that the young people featured – some of them as young as 12- were frightened of rejection and hatred.

Sadly the film also shows the terrible reactions that coming out can produce . And we get it  full on in this piece. There’s the “God will punish you “ syndrome and even in one terrifying and awful scene physical violence from a clearly hate-filled mother. “ You disgusting piece of shit “ says the mother to the very brave and nervous Daniel. His mother’s analysis “ God didn’t create anyone that way… to give me such a horrible disgusting child “.

But that’s one of only a small number of rejections in the film. There are also worrying examples of self- loathing and thoughts of suicide for those of us who can’t or don’t want to accept our sexuality.

But the overwhelming mood of the film is of the acceptance which we all seek. As  one participant tell us – “coming out at 14 or 50 is an incredibly hard thing to do, but it shouldn’t be “ As another puts it “ we come out so people like us know they are not alone. “

So great praise all round for the gays, lesbians and trans people featured for taking that bold step – and would that everyone in every country felt able to do so .

Coming Out is made by Dryades Films and Upside Films and distributed by Peccadillo Pictures. It’s available via Amazon and on the BFI player.

REVIEW: Frankenstein @ Theatre Royal Brighton

A tall white skeletal house has mist rolling in through its huge missing windows. There’s thunder and lightning and the house walls are lined with blank white shelves holding blank covered books. Dead white trees come through the walls.

It’s a haunting opening image for a really clever upbeat and quirky version of Frankenstein ,  Mary Shelley’s classic gothic horror story.

What writer Rhonda Munro gives us is a whirlwind tour through the madly inventive mind of Shelley and her creations – Dr Victor Frankenstein and his monster made from the  parts of the dead bodies he has dug up to further his experiments on the creation of life.

Shelley is front and centre throughout, talking to us about her writer’s block and physically stopping or speeding up her actors to re-create the very process of writing.

We are in no doubt that Frankenstein’s process of mad creation is mirrored by Shelley’s writing of her masterpiece.

There are many references to madness and monstrosity and we are left pondering who is the real monster  of the piece – is it Frankenstein, his creation or Shelley herself ? We’re left to make up our own mind.

Eilidh Loan as the writer is frenetic, funny, feisty and very annoying. She constantly wise-cracks her way through the proceedings – sometimes with great glee announcing she’s going to kill off another character – then doing so with the stroke  of her pencil.

Ben Castle Gibb is a headstrong handsome Frankenstein who subsides during the play into a gibberish obsessed maniac hell-bent on his own destruction. Michael Moreland is a muscular long haired monster with no signs of being made up of many parts and with a wild-eyed shouty feel of Tarzan about him .

The monster tells the bad doctor F that if he only shows his monster love, all will be well – perhaps he could make the monster a partner and they could run away. It’s as fanciful as the overall tale and of course the minxy  Shelley is not far away ready to make everyone’s life unhappy for the sake of her novel’s success.

It’s a bold re-imagining and like the monster , it has its flaws but it’s a novel creation.

Frankenstein , staged by Perth Theatre and the Belgrade Coventry is at the Theatre Royal, Brighton until 19 October .

 

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