Those lads down in Vauxhall really know how to throw a party although throughout January, I am not drinking and sticking to a rigorous health and fitness regime – or at least trying to. So far I have managed to lay off the booze but Dirty Burger was far too good to have been even the slightest bit healthy. I was in Vauxhall for The Gay Naked Play, the second production to take place at the brand new Above The Stag Theatre. An appropriate play for a theatre company that has spent the last four years developing a loyal and diverse audience by producing musicals, cabaret and plays on a gay theme.
The Gay Naked Play tells the story of the Integrity Players and the problems they have trying to establish an audience with a series of obscure but worthy dramas. Faced with bankruptcy they agree to allow an outsider to produce a musical version of The Passion of the Christ featuring a hard-core porn star as Jesus and a chorus of scantily clad chorus boys. David Bell’s remarkably short play is packed with laughs while verbalising a dilemma faced by many a small theatre company, namely artistic compromise.
Thankfully this production compromises nothing for laughs and director Andrew Beckett keeps the action pacey, the references broad (or at least Broadway!), the cheesecake at acceptable levels and the cast are full of surprises, particularly Stacey Sobieski as Amanda, the pregnant member of Integrity Players who is convinced to play the Virgin Mary and appear naked on stage singing Madonna classics. The Gay Naked Play may not be Chekhov but it’s perfectly suited to the Above The Stag audience and tickets are selling fast - almost as fast as those cheeseburgers on a Saturday night in Vauxhall after closing time at the RVT!
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