‘Is he straight or is he normal?” a character asks of someone in Jordan Seavey’s provocatively titled new play. But, far from suggesting that gay is new orthodoxy, Seavey is confronting the age-old conflict between monogamous commitment and sexual freedom and asking whether progressive legislation can ever resolve tangled relationships. They’re intriguing questions but, running at an uninterrupted 1hr 45min, the play errs on the side of prolixity.
Seavey jumps around in time between 2006 and 2011 while charting the ups and downs of a relationship between two characters. One, called The Writer, is radical, Jewish and wedded to the idea of sexual experimentation; the other, labelled The Academic, is a black guy who teaches media studies and yearns for a permanent partnership. We follow them, though not chronologically, through their first meeting, their crises and their disruptive encounter with a third party named Dan. Meanwhile, the nation’s gradual progress towards the legalisation of same-sex marriage merely exacerbates the tensions between them.
The play makes some sharp points about the hypocrisy of closeted politicians and the persistence of homophobia, but there is something hermetic about the exclusive focus on a single relationship: it comes as a relief when The Writer finally enters a shop to buy bath bombs from a female sales assistant. In all truth, I enjoyed the performance and production more than the play. The high point came from watching Harry McEntire’s expressive features as The Writer, move from lively curiosity to appalled dismay, as he realised that Dan (Dan Krikler) is not only a potential rival but also an accomplished wordsmith. Tyrone Huntley as The Academic registers precisely the character’s mix of sexual abandon and spiritual earnestness. Cash Holland as the soap-seller pops up all too briefly, and Josh Seymour’s direction and Lee Newby’s sand-filled stage give the action a physical life. But, while Seavey plausibly suggests that changes to the law do not offer a permanent fix, I still wished his characters got out into the world a bit more.
• At Finborough theatre, London, until 1 September.
