Waterloo East Theatre – until 18 June 2023
Reviewed by Claire Roderick
4****
Joe Dipietro’s modern take on Schnitzler’s La Ronde portrays a series of encounters between ten men exploring attitudes to sexuality and relationships in an extraordinary 90 minutes of sex, laughs and surprising tenderness.
The structure of the play, with one character from a scene moving on to a fresh interaction with the next character, can sometimes make for clunky scene changes, but director Steven Kunis utilises Cara Evans’ ingenious split screen-like set brilliantly to keep the audience on their toes. The slickness of Alex Lewer’s lighting and Charlie Smith’s sound elevate the production even further. A series of panels across the stage change from opaque to transparent, revealing new locations or characters. Kunis cleverly uses this device to introduce future characters saying seemingly random lines from their upcoming scenes, as a couple have sex in the main scene, adding layers of tenderness, sadness or humour.
The characters are mainly stereotypes – a escort, a homophobic soldier in denial about his sexuality, a teacher, a college boy (whose insistence that he’s bi elicits wonderful reactions from the older men he hooks up with), a married couple who have “an agreement”, a porn star, a playwright, a closeted actor and a TV personality. The joy of Dipietro’s writing is that he uses these stereotypes to shine a light on the life of these gay men. Smart script changes bring the scenarios into the 2020s, and the play tackles homophobia, monogamy, sex work, porn through the eyes of the different characters with a lightness of touch that never becomes overwrought. The differing attitudes and situations between the generations is best portrayed in the final scene with Charlie Condou’s older TV personality, in a marriage of convenience but living for years with his “assistant” reacts with heart-breaking hope and kindness as Alex Britt’s escort talks about his plans to find a place and settle down with his boyfriend.
The cast of four are on fire. Condou is brilliantly nuanced playing the less showy roles of two older men, while Derek Mitchell is satisfyingly OTT as the flamboyant playwright – making the audience roar with laughter. Stanton Plummer-Cambridge excels playing characters hiding their true selves and Alex Britt is a delight portraying the younger men whose confident and naive world view contrasts hugely with the older characters and their experiences.
There is a lot of sex, but Lee Crowley’s intimacy direction and the inspired staging ensure that this is no peep show – the underlying message of searching for connections shines through in the hands of this talented cast. This new production of F**king Men is a triumph – hilarious and deeply moving, a must-see show.