ajhlovestheatre

FUCKING MEN

by Joe DiPietro

directed by Steven Kunis

Waterloo East Theatre, London – until 18 June 2023

https://www.waterlooeast.co.uk/f-men

Schnitzler’s 1920 play La Ronde was astonishingly ahead of its time with its depiction of a daisy chain of sexual liaisons and has since provided a fertile dramatic basis for other treatments/adaptations such as David Hare’s modern The Blue Room (a two actor tour de force in which Nicole Kidman and Iain Glen bared more than their souls at the Donmar and on Broadway in 1998) and Michael LaChiusa’s gorgeous quasi-operatic Hello Again which haunts and troubles far more than your average off-Broadway tuner. Joe DiPietro, best known here for his scripts for a number of successful American musicals such as Memphis and The Toxic Avenger, had the inspired idea of applying this neat but explosive concept to gay relationships/hook-ups and ended up with a long running London fringe show and several international productions.

Fucking Men (the confrontational title hilariously chosen by the author because he thought the play was un-producible so, like, what the hell) is back in a stylish, coruscating new edition which feels fiercer but also more emotionally true than its previous iteration. That has much to do with DiPietro’s intelligent textual updates (there are now references to things like OnlyFans, PrEP and apps), but also a smart, sexy but never exploitative production by Steven Kunis, and a quartet of beautiful performances that run the gamut from painful to sassy and much in between with extraordinary skill and delicacy.

Charlie Condou draws a thrilling contrast between a bewildered “nice guy” type all at sea in the transactional world of casual sex and a hard nosed Hollywood exec whose tough exterior conceals a well of pain. Derek Mitchell is a lot of fun but still finds the core of truth in a self-aggrandising playwright, and Alex Britt is an impressive shapeshifter in a variety of roles. Stanton Plummer-Cambridge invests each of his roles with intriguing layers. All in all, it’s hard to imagine the play acted better than it is here.

In a parade of a dozen or so scenes, DiPietro’s assortment of men – a sex worker, a bisexual student, a closeted actor, a cheating husband, a soldier, a lovelorn tutor, several more – meet, talk, have sex, and repeat…each successive scene retaining a partner from the previous one. It’s a straightforward enough concept but each encounter bears the unmistakable ring of truth, and, in an elegant visual flourish, director Kunis and designer Cara Evans has participants from the next liaison visible through the clear walls of the set, like lingering ghosts. The whole thing is lit with real invention by Alex Lewer. The men of the title are vividly, swiftly established with a remarkable economy but also a specificity that provokes guffaws and winces of recognition. Very seldom do any of the characterisations hit a false note (I’m not sure I fully bought into the porn star suffering chronic loneliness, despite Britt’s sensitive performance) and the script as a whole feels successful in its intention to present a broad spectrum of gay ‘types’ that still, on the whole, feel like rounded human beings.

DiPietro finds a lot of humour amongst all the angst and the frantic rutting, which mercifully stops Fucking Men from becoming a wearying succession of dark nights of the soul. There’s sweetness amongst the cynicism but ultimately the play as a whole paints a slightly depressing picture of the emotional disconnect and isolation that seems to go hand-in-hand with endless bouts of casual encounters. Still, DiPietro presents it all with a commendable lack of judgement, and a clear-eyed compassion.

Audiences may well be attracted by the provocative title but in fact this is a surprisingly scintillating evening.