Day: July 28, 2013

It’s not often that I see a piece of theatre that makes me cry with laughter one minute and then just cry the next, but My Gay Best Friend managed it easily and I walked out of the Emporium with a tear still in my eye.

Racquell and Gavin are best friends. Both work in Boots in Eastbourne, he as a cleaner and she as a shop assistant. They met when he knocked her carefully put together nail varnish display over with a mop, went arse over tit and ended up in A&E “with four stitches and a lifelong scar.”

Now both are sitting in different toilets, chewing over their lives and their friendship, and talking directly to us, the audience.

Racquell is waiting to go on stage to sing for the first time in a very long time, while Gavin is trying to produce a potful of sperm to inseminate the bull dyke next door.

And there they are for most of the evening. Characters sitting in bogs doesn’t seem like a very promising start to an evening’s theatre, but it’s the perfect mirrored environment for them both to spill the beans (and for Gavin to hopefully spill more than that….)

Funny and soulful at the same time is a difficult act to pull off, but writer Nigel Fairs, who plays his own (somewhat autobiographical) creation Gavin, not only gets away with it, but runs with it and scores a touchdown. It works in two ways: as a series of monologues that would stand up on their own, but when they intertwine you get theatrical dynamite and a beautiful portrait of a strained but solid relationship where each person is as needy of the other but for very different reasons.

It’s easy to see that Racquell, played by ex-Doctor Who and Eastenders actress Louise Jameson, has been damaged by something or someone along the way, but when the revelation comes, it’s heart-wrenching. Jameson’s acting is wonderfully arms flailing Northern brash one minute and eye of the storm the next. She fixes the audience with a steely eye, and seems unafraid to talk in her broad Barnsley accent about anything (“Do you remember discovering your clitoris, girls?”), until it touches on things that no one wants to have to hear.

The more solid, stable figure, nicely spoken Gavin, has got one of those faces that make people open up to him which is sometimes a blessing (when meeting Racquell) and sometimes a curse (when in a darkroom in Sitges). But he’s had his problems, not least of which was growing up gay in Burgess Hill and coming out in the 80s when it was “all those dreadful tombstones on the telly.” Now 45, he thinks  that as a gay man he’s become invisible and despairs of ever having a meaningful relationship again.

The success of this production relies on whether we buy into both characters and their complex relationship, and that’s easy to do with writing this intimate, engaging, and spot on. It’s as if the duo are talking to us over a cup of tea and a Nice biscuit at the kitchen table, with their eyes frequently meeting ours as they let us in on their little secrets, foibles, worries, and often their pain.

This small but perfectly formed production is a must-see for any gay men and fag-hags out there. I guarantee you’ll recognise just a little bit of yourself in Gavin and Racquell. Actually, it’s simply a must-see performance for everyone. Power to its elbow as it goes off on its tiny weeny tour, and I really hope My Gay Best Friend gets a lot more exposure over the next few years. It certainly deserves it. I’ll be looking out for the name Nigel Fairs in the future and will jump at the chance of a ticket to anything else he writes, as should you. I’m confident you won’t be disappointed.

WHAT: My Gay Best Friend

WHERE: The Emporium, London Road, Brighton

WHEN: You’ve missed it, but it’s in Bath and Barnstaple later in the year if you’re near there

RUNNING TIME: 80 minutes

MORE INFO: CLICK HERE:

WOULD I SEE IT AGAIN: Yes, and I’d take all my mates too

Let’s Misbehave plays as we take our seats, setting the scene nicely for the one-woman show to follow.

 “Trouser-wearing characters are born, not made,” exclaims Rose Collis, writer, historian and performer, steering clear of the ‘G’ word. No, her horizons are broader than just queers. Rose is talking about characters who dominate, appear larger than life, stay on in the memory, make an impact – and it just so happens that most of them are LGBT!

With her trusty banjolele, Bud, and dressed to the nines in full dress suit (cummerbund and bow tie included), Rose guides us skillfully through the highlights of the lives of her chosen subjects, squeezing all the best anecdotes in along the way. Interspersing the chat with songs – evergreens and originals – we’re entertained and informed in equal measure.

First up for scrutiny is Nancy Spain, a nice Roedean girl gone to the dark side, who had a nice line in double entendre cookbooks and whose columns in Beaverbrook’s Daily Express were so catty that the paper got sued twice by Evelyn Waugh. She was killed in a plane crash along with her partner on their way to the Grand National, leaving two young orphaned boys.

Then there was Colonel Sir Victor Barker DSO (Dick Shot Off was the quip on many a lip), a military man who began life as Valerie Arkell-Smith until she got fed up with being married to no-good men and decided the life of a retired colonel was much more comfortable.

A name I vaguely remember from my youth, Dougie Bing was so vain that he often quipped; “I never leave the house without looking like Dougie Bing.” 

Strangely, when I got home from the show and turned on Radio 4, what was on the radio but a programme about Bing starring Julian Clary and filmed in Brighton. Spooky!

Dougie was an old reprobate and the most likely of the TWCs (Trouser-Wearing Characters) to call you ‘dear boy’. He had the distinction of being the first female impersonator to have a show on the Beeb, and from the 50s onwards he became the best panto dame in the business. He ended his time in the Denville Hall Home for Retired Actors where he continued to be a big old queer pain in the bum.

Lastly, there’s Coral Browne, another TWC I’m old enough to remember. Coral was a serial wedder, but also had affairs with numerous women. This omnisexual Oz girl turned posh Brit stage star was engaged to Jack Buchanan in the 40s but when he jilted her she ended up marrying his gay understudy.

Rose, in her neat little show, brings these disparate characters to life with gusto and obvious affection. Not blessed with the best of voices, she gives it a good go anyway and her natural enthusiasm carries her through, but she strums Bud like a pro. Cameo appearances from the likes of Vincent Price (married to Browne), Marlene Dietrich (mate of Spain’s), and Noël Coward (mate of everyone’s so it seems!) spice up the stories and make you want to go and look the characters up on the net after the show’s finished, or go and search out Rose’s own book about one of her TWC’s, Nancy Spain.

I came away thinking if only all history teachers could be as enthusiastic as Rose, every pupil would come away with an A*!

WHAT: Trouser-Wearing Characters

WHERE: The Emporium, London Road, Brighton

WHEN: 26 & 27 July, 7.30pm

RUNNING TIME: an hour

MORE INFO: CLICK HERE:

WOULD I GO AGAIN: Yes, to hear about more TWCs!