Photo: Craig Fuller
Writer: Harry McDonald
Director: Matthew Iliffe
⭐️⭐️
Could anything be more unpleasant than spending an evening stuck in a public convenience? Well, yes, possibly being in such a place and watching Foam, Harry McDonald’s unflinching one-act account of London’s skinhead scene of the 1970s to 1990s.
We share the Finborough’s cramped performance space with a urinal, a wash basin and a cubicle that is complete with spy hole. Nitin Parmar’s set design has all the essentials. In 1974, 15-year-old Nicky Crane (Jake Richards) walks in and begins to shave off his hair. He is followed by the vaguely aristocratic Mosley (Matthew Baldwin), dressed all in black, who invites the boy to join his “club” and presents him with a signature pair of boots. This opening scene has a surreal feel, with Mosley as a demonic figure, but the drama reverts quickly to realism.
The play has five scenes, each with confrontation as its main ingredient. Nicky’s journey takes him from night club bouncer to punk rock singer, a prison term and gay porn star. Each scene has a different protagonist, including a gay photographer (Kishore Walker) and a violent defender of black rights (Keanu Adolphus Johnson) as director Matthew Iliffe’s gritty production mounts aggression on aggression.
What McDonald seems most keen to explore are the interactions between the skinhead subculture, fascism and homoeroticism. As Nicky adorns himself with swastika tattoos and chants nationalist slogans, he has numerous sexual encounters with men, while forcefully denouncing the gay world, The connections and the contradictions are laid out clearly by the writer, but maybe they are not adequately explained. Most crucially, McDonald fails to explain Nicky. Does this monster have a heart or a soul? We never know and the omission leaves a gaping hole in the play.
To its credit, Foam does nothing to mask the ugliness of the lifestyle that it depicts, but it is a tough watch, packing into its 90 minutes as much aggression as in a dozen episodes of Eastenders. When it is over, the night air of Chelsea smells sweet.
Performance date: 22 March 2024
The Beast's Pen 