Review: Loving Dick, Lass O’Gowrie, Manchester
I’m about to watch a play called Loving Dick in a tiny room in a pub in Manchester and there are chairs which say ‘Reserved’ on them.
Obviously, I’m terrified. If there’s one thing that embarrasses us Brits like no other it’s talk about sex and sexuality so the idea of being involved in a play whereby there could potentially be audience participation required is quite alarming.
This is not a problem for John Mulleady and Rose van Leyenhorst who co –wrote and also star in the play alongside Daniel Thorn. As you might gather from the title it’s bold, daring, and certainly not for the faint of heart instead tackling the issues of sex, friendship, romance, and not forgetting education, head on. It’s dirty and funny in all the right places while sarcastically crude and self-effacing in others.
It’s a dialogue-heavy play which is suited to the small venue in which it is situated; the drama and chaos of their world unravelling before you as if it were in your own living room. While the location, the central character, and the theme might change the intimacy stays the same and with an intelligent use of a whiteboard they manage to make budget constraints feel personal rather than am-dram and cheap. In one particularly stand out scene Max (Thorn) uses it to tell us what OFSTED stands for while idealistic teacher Connor (Mulleady) tell us what it really means to those in education. His matter of fact tone and hacked off teacher look give it a ring of authenticity.
Of course we’re skirting around the central matter here; Dick. Or rather the lack of him. Dick’s a concept that casts a shadow over the entire thing and it’s a beautiful idea to have a main character who (arguably) never makes an appearance – you’ll figure it out when you see it. Dick, the man and the thing, are the springboard for what this play is really about; what is sex?
Lana (Leyenhorst) muses on this throughout and her ponderings are somewhere between a desperate soliloquy and a flurry of rage. She’s perhaps the most serious of the three characters, but within her feminist ideals she too has the most to gain or lose from whatever the understanding comes to be. This isn’t to say she’s not funny, she certainly is and her up-front brash nature is the basis of this entire thing. It’s John Mulleady as Connor though who steals the show by simply eating a donut and unzipping his pants. He’s fed-up, he’s confused, he’s got dead-pan delivery and he’s relatable.
Mulleady and Leyenhorst’s first play together, Loving Dick, is a charming, thought-provoking work that makes you laugh at both Michael Gove and shagging, so if you’re heading to the Edinburgh Fringe this August it’s definitely worth a visit.
If you’re scared of that participation I mentioned then, alas, there’s no need. The worst that’s going to happen is you’ll get a shot of cheap Vodka.
Date of live review: 21 June 2013
