The Gay Naked Play

In their beautiful and newly opened building in the heart of Vauxhall, under the railway arches, and on the back of Jack Off The Beanstalk the irrepressible ATS give home to this zany, colourful, madcap romp through the world of ‘commercial’ versus ‘true’ art! A mid-town theatre company – The Integrity Players – have all the passion, no money and no audience, who must join forces with an uber-gay commercial producing team driven by the disposable incomes of the give-them-what-they-want pink pound! The Gays. Gay Theatre. The gayer the better… So we know it is going to be a little bit gay. Hmmm, that is like saying Dorothy loved Toto just a little!

The result is brilliant. Archetypes played to the fullest with gay abandon delivered with machine-gun speed on rapid and repeat. The gags and gaging come thick and fast with every third or fourth line being a pay-off or a set-up for yet another Polari-fueled putdown. It wonderfully dares to suggest that actors are so down on their luck in the ‘true art’ world of theatre that they saw Eileen Atkins tap dancing for small change on the subway – well, on reflection ‘it was definitely her…. Or, Angela Lansbury!’

All mounted on a stylish and multi-functional set gloriously realised by designer David Shields and magically lit by Elliot Griggs, the tempestuous team of slightly – no, massively – mad theater-types, a crazy controlling Mother and a ‘big’ porn star combine, contrast, congeal and copulate! No weak link in this eight-strong cast where every nut and bolt is well oiled, turning tunefully and tectonically in time within the team of this tremendous company.

Super. Smashing. Great

Orlando Weston