King’s Head Theatre 5 December – 9 January. Reviewed by Claire Roderick
Joe DiPietro’s play is a gay version of La Ronde by Arthur Schnitzler, which caused scandal in the 1920s. The play focuses on the sexual encounters of ten men. Each scene features two men, with each character appearing in two consecutive scenes apart from one character who features in the first and final scenes.
The characters’ attitudes towards relationships and sex are explored with brutal honesty. From the squaddie who swears he isn’t gay as he pays an escort for a blowjob to the bisexual student (“I have a girlfriend!”) who addictively uses Grindr to hook up with married men, some of the characters are hysterically not self-aware. Meaningless physical encounters contrast with the romantic, verbose playwright who considers his hook-ups a way to create a deep connection and the easy, lazy interactions of the married couple who have an arrangement allowing casual sex. They have a long term view of the relationship, with sex and companionship being separate issues, at least for one of them. Throw in a closeted action hero and a grieving journalist whose long term lover has died, and the audience is put through the emotional wringer.
Even though some of the men insist that as they are gay, they are supposed to screw around, the characters are all searching for happiness and fulfilment in their own way. We see relationships that are just beginning, an established relationship, and the aftermath of relationships that have ended.
The writing is witty and clever, and the cast – Richard De Lisle, Harper James and Haydn Whiteside are all superb, giving each character an innate sense of loneliness and need. The sweetest moments in the play involve the porn star, who has a romantic vision of a future where he lives happily with the love of his life, and the escort, reintroduced in the lovely final scene, who needs money to buy a decent place with his boyfriend.
All of the conversations are wonderfully observed and well judged. There’s no sensationalism or judgement and each character, although not on stage for long, is made real and believable.
F*cking Men is a smart, funny and delicately shaded play with a warm, yearning heart – well worth a look.