It seems strange to imagine that I wrote this whilst on my way home from Sean's other weekend. The power of the iPad I suppose and the joy of a relatively empty train from Croydon. This week has seen the beginning of my review year with pithy first two plays having a gay theme. Firstly, the private life of playwright Terrence Rattigan was examined in The Art Of Concealment by Giles Cole at the Jermyn Street Theatre and secondly TV chat show hell reared it's ugly head in Sleeping With Straight Men by Ronnie Larsen at the ATS.
Both plays are somewhat flawed, fleshing out the characters and situations in too broad strokes. Each play contained several unexplored plot opportunities and the Rattigan biog had at least one character who was decidedly superfluous to requirements. The questions raises its ugly head of which of the two I preferred. By far and away it was Sleeping With Straight Men.
The company Above The Stag created a really good atmosphere with their play, which could also boast a much more refined design element - certainly with David Shields the design at ATS has improved greatly. The broadness of the drama was matched by some thoroughly OTT performances that enhanced the entertainment value of the piece rather than working against it.
For me the Rattigan play should have known better. Exposition abounded with moments of clunky dialogue and whilst there seemed to be plenty of good ideas bouncing around, none of them were explored deeply enough. There was however a particularly absorbing performance from Charlie Hollway as Rattigan's lover Michael.
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