Photo: Dawn Kilner
Writer and director: Adam Zane
Adam Zane’s new play is a modern-day morality tale set in the city of Manchester, putting the emphasis on the first syllable. The action revolves around five men who enjoy the pleasure’s of the city’s Gay Village to the full. Their mobile devices are loaded with every known gay dating app and their nights are packed with excesses of sex, drugs and alcohol.
Ben (David Paisley) is in his mid-40s. Having spent 12 years in a monogamous relationship with a much older man, he is now intent on making up for lost time, being a “daddy” to the others, who are all in their 20s. Kam (Sam Goodchild) and Russel (Matthew Gent) are Ben’s old friends who are both denying a little too vigorously that they are a couple.
They are joined to make up a foursome for the night by AJ (Levi Payne), a newly in town from Doncaster who will later prove to be too slow to learn the perils of unprotected sex. When the action is in full swing, Simon (George Hughes) responds to a dating app message and then there are five. He is porn “star” looking for a steadier job and he has a serious addiction problem.
In Zane’s script, words and deeds are brazen and bawdy. The dialogue alternates between sexually explicit and tired innuendo, broken only by talk of the men’s passions for Victoria Wood, Coronation Street and, of course, Kylie. For all of the first act, the writer seems unable to decide whether he is casting scorn on the lifestyles of the character or celebrating them and being daring alone is not enough to carry the play.
A change of tone in the second act proves to be the play’s redemption. The characters begin to see themselves as unable to escape, trapped forever, each destined to become “the Ken Barlow of Canal Street”. They come to realise the hollowness of their hedonism and a tragic event jolts them into seeing reality. In these later stages, Zane’s writing itself finds a sense of purpose.
There is little work for a costume designer in a lively, well-paced production, directed by the writer himself. Dick Longdin’s set design for Ben’s bedroom with a much used king-size bed as its centrepiece, suggests that it is part of a comfortable middle class dwelling. in some ways, the characters are integrated into conventional city life, but, in many other ways, they are far apart from it.
Zane’s writing sparks a feeling that the biggest obstacles to enjoying the fruits of their liberation arise from members of the gay community themselves, thereby echoing sentiments to be found in the works of Kevin Elyot. Such a comparison may flatter Zane at the moment, but there is sufficient here to indicate that brighter things could be on the way.
Performance date: 12 October 2023
The Beast's Pen 