First off, it’s great to welcome a new theatre space in London, with the opening of the King’s Head Theatre, nestling in a shopping centre behind the original iconic pub theatre in Islington: more about it later.
Shaun McKenna and Andrew Van Sickle’s play Exhibitionists is billed by the authors in the programme as a gay comedy of modern manners. It’s no such thing. First, there are no manners in this play – all the characters are violent, angry, damaged and mostly emotionally unattractive.
Second, with its characters running on and off stage through doors, caught with their trousers down, and generally making a mess of life, it is undoubtedly a farce – but not a good one.
We open in a swish San Francisco art gallery, where two couples have been invited to a private viewing, where only two people can be a room at a time. This device is to keep the couples apart from an instant revelation and the end of the plot line.
Conor (Ashley D Gale) is a lawyer for Disney; his boyfriend Mal (Jake Mitchell-Jones) is a film set runner and aspiring movie-maker. When they vacate one of the gallery’s five rooms, on come Rayyan (Rolando Montecalvo), a high-class landscape gardener, and new other half Robbie (Robert Rees), architect to the rich and famous..
All you need to know, and I’m telling it quicker than the opening, tortuous scenes depict it, is: Conor used to be with Robbie, before their violent separation seven years earlier.
Conor hits on Robbie and they sort of elope, finding themselves in a Scandinavian motel in the middle of nowhere with – you may have guessed it – Mal and Rayyan in the next room. Apart from a highly sexy Scandi motel owner Sebastian (Oystein Lode), who complicates matters, that’s it.
There’s a lot of shouting, everybody punches everybody else and they are made to confess their true feelings by talking to a wooden spoon – and I didn’t make that last bit up.
To give it the benefit of the doubt, there’s probably a quick-fired 60-minute play fighting to get out of its 90-minute straitjacket – I hope the writers find it.
Access footnote: The main theatre space is three floors underground, but it’s good that there’s a lift to save the 50-odd stairs. At the moment it’s quite a bare minimalist look in public areas, but I guess they’ll develop the decor over time. The seats were all separate small metal tip-up ones: very uncomfortable and with virtually no leg room – again maybe they’ll get better seating in time.
Exhibitionists runs until February 10. Tickets HERE
