5 Guys Chillin’ reminded me of the faded glamour of a Stockwell flat at 7am on a Tuesday, without the glamour and more of an unabashed frankness. I think the best word to describe this play is explicit.
You can either take a viewing of this verbatim drama with a dash of irreverence, or see it as a melancholic look into an element of gay culture that poses a real chance of defining a generation. With a script condensed from more than 50 hours of interviews with guys on apps like Grindr and Scruff, this is as close as you can get to a chill out without actually being at one.
There were moments of laughter and moments where even the most hardened (if you’ll pardon the pun) of dabblers in the world of chemsesh may elicit a gasp – gonorrhea as lube, anyone?
Some would say that it took too long to reach the back stories, however I would argue, who in real life would open up about such things in double or triple the time it took these men? Yes, these guys are high, but they all arrive to the party with their own hang-ups that take a while to manifest themselves. From a young gay Pakistani guy in an arranged marriage (played wonderfully by Cael King), to a HIV positive couple who are convinced they’re happy with the constant partying, but see their resolve falter with jealousy.
An interesting point woven throughout the play was the idea of an ‘etiquette’ to chill outs – a sort of unwritten, drug fuelled version of Debrett’s Guide to Etiquette and Modern Manners. It’s a revealing paradox that such an expression of freedom of choice, comes with a codified set of rules around issues ranging from the serious: race and sexually transmitted diseases to the not so serious: phone usage and views on fisting. M, played by Haydn Whiteside, poses as the pious one, yet, shows himself to be just as conflicted as the rest of the cast.
I wanted to be light-hearted and pepper my review with references to Selena Gomez and Céline Dion. But I couldn’t. This is a topic that is really worth discussing, debating, and most importantly, having an open mind about. Kudos to the King’s Head Theatre, director Peter Darney and the whole team for providing a platform for this pertinent discussion.
• 5 Guys Chillin’ is running from 5th – 27th February at the King’s Head Theatre. Visit www.kingsheadtheatre.com for more details.
