Scram & Scrum’s An Apology to Lady Gaga is a significantly thought-provoking look into queer id on the VAULT Festival
“You can’t just be gay, you have to enter the gay world”
First issues first. There’s a reference in An Apology to Lady Gaga to somebody born in 1998 who isn’t apparently nonetheless a toddler and I’m not even kidding, it felt like a slap within the face. My points with the passing of time apart, it is a powerfully thought-provoking quick play that basically takes the time to wrestle with the way in which during which popular culture shapes a lot of latest queer id and what meaning to completely different LGBTQ+ people.
Tim and Matty are two such people. Schoolfriends who existed in largely completely different orbits, an opportunity assembly in a Leeds homosexual bar years later results in a delightfully charming relationship in a pleasant Manchester house. The pair are at markedly completely different factors of their ranges of ‘gayness’ for need of a greater time period. Every different sentence for Tim is a Drag Race reference whereas Matty recoils from the prospect of a Pride blanket taking delight of place of their front room. They’re nonetheless suitable although, proper?
Ed Cooke’s play explores that topic thoughtfully and with a formidable diploma of steadiness. For all of the banter about getting your homosexual badge (I’m nonetheless ready…), there’s no judgement in regards to the acceptable degree of gayness. As Tim and Matty wade by means of the wealth of homosexual cultural touchstones (Little Mix! Doctor Who! Pup masks…) to work out the place they each stand, you surprise about how deeply we draw on these items. And as Matty’s psychological well being declines, we’re left to severely query their significance.
The swap from comedy to drama is nicely managed by director Giulia Hallworth, although the present does typically strive somewhat too laborious to marry your complete homosexual expertise with the connection difficulties right here, overegging the parallels which are scarcely wanted. Lines just like the one up prime and the heartbreaking commentary about Heartstopper show rather more efficient in evoking the troubled emotional terrain right here, and the probabilities of a path by means of it.
Cooke (as Matty) and fellow performer Nefyn Edwards (as Tim) supply a stunning portrait of a totally plausible relationship, from its Gaga-inspired beginnings to its shift into flux, sprinklings of Sharon Robinson-Marsh’s motion including additional dimension to their partnership and a neat level of distinction to the manufacturing at giant. And thematically the play is endlessly intriguing because it reminds us of the significance of particular person journeys (with their very own wants for assist) in addition to communal pleasure – one thing that has all the time struck me about issues like National Coming Out Day.