REVIEW: STRADDLE @ THE HEN & CHICKENS THEATRE

🎭 Straddle: A Fantasia on Gay Rage 

📍 Hen & Chickens Theatre, 109 St Paul's Road, London, N1 2NA                 

🗓 Wednesday 21st August 2024

⭐️⭐️⭐️

DOESN'T MEET IT'S TRUE POTENTIAL

This one-man show follows the somewhat eccentric central character as he comes to terms with and embraces his sexuality whilst trying to figure out how he fits into the hetero-normal world around him.

A wonderfully touching relationship with a boy at school, his kindred spirit, shapes how he sees the world and how he interacts with others and forges relationships throughout his life.

All the elements of the classic gay youth story are here. The father who refuses to wear pink and encourages manly pursuits; having the token girlfriend; the crush on a straight boy; and the eventual coming out. I always say about myself that rather than coming out of the closet I exploded out, and this is very much true of our unnamed protagonist here!

Peter Todd is an engaging performer and acts the piece well, displaying great physicality throughout. The main problem with this piece I felt was that it tried to squeeze far too much narritive into its hour runtime which unfortunately left the piece with a severe lack of depth and heart.

The storyline about the relationship with his friend Sam which runs throughout is endearing and it would have been nice to explore this more, but the piece is full of random skits - such as a seminar on 'How to be Straight' - some of which work while others seem completely bizarre and out of place.

It was difficult to work out the target audience as there were times as a gay man in his 40's that I felt a generation or two too old for the piece, but at other times it seemed extremely dated and the sort of queer representation I'd have seen on the stage 20 years ago - full of unhelpful stereotypes and giving no sense of humanity to the character.

The gay rage element which manifested itself as him wanting to murder the entire population of the world felt genuinely ludicrous, yet the part which displayed him hiding behind humour was touching.

At the core there is a good show here, but both the script and the stage need decluttering. I love a bit of camp fun, but parts such as the 'Holding out for a Penis' skit just seemed tacky.

Going after cheap laughs like this really took away from the deeper elements of the piece and I would be interested to follow this show's journey and see it develop into the fantastic production I believe it could be.

Straddle: A Fantasia on Gay Rage has bucket loads of potential, it just needs work to reach it. There is an abundance of queer theatre at the moment, and while I applaud the creative team for trying something different, this piece as it stands falls short of having the impact that others do.

This play was showing as part of this year's Camden Fringe, but I'm sure it'll reappear at some point so keep a look out. You can follow Scar Theatre on social media for all the latest updates.

Neill Kovacic-Clarke

All views are my own and I pride myself on being honest, fair and free from influence. Theatre is subjective and it is important to remember that all views expressed are just those of one reviewer.

My ticket for this performance of Straddle: A Fantasia on Gay Rage was gifted by the team at Scar Theatre who invited me to watch the show in exchange for my honest review. The fact that my ticket was gifted played no part in the content of my review or the star rating given.