Andrew Doherty’s daft as a brush, satirical follow-up to last year’s acclaimed Gay Witch Sex Cult, finds him in rude condition and absurd form. Sad Gay AIDS Play finds the frontier-pushing theatremaker workshopping scenes from his newest production, ‘AIDS Actually’.
It’s an experience he introduces by way of a Thorpe Park ride without safety bars, promising a rollercoaster of emotions. In truth he wants to make a play about six housewives trapped in a reality show house without windows or a door, but his parents have cut him off since abandoning a career with Deloitte (whatever they do), and Arts Council England (ACE) only have eyes for AIDS.
So here comes little ‘Harry Manlove’ discovering his homosexuality in 1981, not too long since the “cheeky” IRA blew his mum up. Doherty gets huge mileage out of saying such outrageous things in order to skewer familiar stereotypes. Having started, he continues…
Our boy Harry is having a gay old time with his friends, including Freddy Mercury, until he takes a “bad” batch of semen and develops a cough. Cue a lot of death, and because of some funding from a religious group, angels as well. If this is the show after an edit, Doherty’s first draft must have been a wild, wild invention.
“Doherty does get huge mileage out of saying outrageous things in order to skewer familiar stereotypes.”
Doherty’s final version of Sad Gay AIDS Play is anything but sensitive in its single-minded quest to send up his vision of a poverty/suffering-porn obsessed arts funding ecosystem.This self-congratulatory version of himself has their lack of tact permanently dialled to 11, whether he’s peering behind himself with exaggerated clownishness before saying the word “gay”, or performing a skit on his character’s abusive childhood ‘in the north.
If he were a less talented performer it’s precisely the sort of show that could go badly wrong, but he has a gift for delivery, and eeks out extra laughs from coquettish movements and meaningful double takes as well.
Kudos are also due to the writing behind his utterly barmy Arts Council England profile, which offers some of the biggest laugh in the show.
However, it as Harry’s journey into ridiculous disaster continues, things do get a little repetitive. On top of this ACE, who join the show via Microsoft Teams, are eventually revealed as demonic dealmakers promising success if Andrew will play along and tick their cynical little boxes. This ushers in a slightly clunky meta-drama from which proceedings struggle to escape with the show’s satirical ege intact, though the means of his final salvation are delightfully dystopic.
In this, and throughout the show, it’s clear that Doherty is a multi-talented artist capable of impressive, risk-taking, and hilarious work. On the whole then, whilst Sad Gay AIDS Play may not be perfect, it’s still very very good, and continues to mark him as one to watch.
Show details
Venue: Venue 23: Pleasance Dome, 1 Bristo Square, EH8 9AL (Google Maps)
Date(s): Wed 30 Jul to Sun 24 Aug (26 shows)
Time(s): 8:30pm (60 mins)
Age recommendation: 14+
Price: From £9.0 (concessions available)
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