You know what? Everyday life is fuckin’ tough! Sure, pray every frantic second to whatever god floats your boat – Quentin Crisp in pantyhose, maybe – but someday, someway, shit’s gonna hit you, big-time! So screw living in a dopey, mopey, self-anaesthestised mindset – maybe, just maybe, you should try dealing with stuff like a fully functional adult? See, that nasty old world out there doesn’t give a fuck about your sweet, sensitive, inner self – mostly, outside pampered Europe, the mood’s kill or be killed!
Which brings us, pointedly, to rightly acclaimed performance artist Scottee’s directorial debut, Putting Words In Your Mouth. In a startling stroke of brilliantly perverse originality, he plays with and tries to explosively reclaim the lamest, dead duck of gay drag culture – lip-synching. But hey, there’s a killer twist; three black performers – Lasana Shabbaz, Travis Alabanza and Jamal Gerald – superlatively mime the fascistic bile of white, privileged bigots, creating an instant, electrifying, WTF? reaction.
Does it work? Or focus fully-justified moral outrage on the appalling intolerance and endemic hatred raised? Hardly, and in less adroit, directorial hands, this show, barely, would achieve the level of an LGBT, induction awareness rant.
Why? Doesn’t a blatant social conscience always make riveting theatre? Frankly, no, and the reason’s simple – too much information! See, these days, nobody – even the proverbial, only gay in the village – is offline, and daily, we’re beautifully burned by constant, indispensable firestorms of impassioned faggotry! So, why play mind-numbingly safe and lamely preach to the converted? Shouldn’t we get real, and not pretend everything’s racially, ideologically hunky dory? Actually, many humans hate each other’s guts, even in the same family!
Look, post-Brexit, post-Trump, this really isn’t the time for mealy-mouthed nimbyism! Fuck, why do you think Trump won? Duh, because he’s a crass, insensitive, obnoxious cunt, freely mouthing the redneck obscenities millions of white, working-class Yanks secretly hold!
The answer? Simple – being even more strident, but with charm and wit, spraying unevolved assholes with self-evident truths instantly toxic to smug heterosexuals. Such as? Oh, Cher’s queer daughter, Abe Lincoln’s gay fling, and the inimitable delights of ‘cum lollies’, those delicious, bespoke ice-creams made from your own – and sexual partners, plural – mixed spunk. Really, killer wit – the legacy of Wilde and the queer, political equivalent of dancing backwards in heels – requires a psychological fluency far beyond reactionary, Republican dullards!
Sure, for sex and identity politics virgins, I’m sure Scottee’s show is a Biblical revelation, but as agit-prop – agitating, propaganda theatre – it’s merely taking babysteps. Yes, the working-class – gay and straight– spawns hotbed reactionaries, but so does every sector of society, and psychopathic ruthlessness has nothing to do with social class!
For every Keith Vaz allegedly partying with prozzies, there’s a Nicky Crane, the infamous, now-deceased, far-right, gay skinhead. Equally, some of the most publicly genial politicians ever were full-on psychos – JFK was frantic to nearly nuke Kruschev, and Blair couldn’t wait to wet his frilly panties with falsely invaded, middle-eastern oil!
So, does irrational prejudice share a common bond? Of course – pure stupidity, often excused as blind loyalty to unchallenged, seemingly monolithic social traditions. Yes, Brits are guilty of colonialism, but what explains the Indian caste-system, discriminating internally since time immemorial? And in black culture, there’s a disquieting prejudice towards the darker-skinned from the lighter-toned. Oh, if only Scottee hadn’t opted for such easy, ethical target practice, and tackled truly knotted moral contradictions!
Really, shouldn’t theatre- and any worthwhile art – set blazing fire to our imagination, and give glimpses of previously undreamt of possibilities? Not here, but me, I’m gagging to see this show again, served with far sharper teeth, and a much more tasty bite!
• Putting Words In your Mouth by Scottee @ Camden Roundhouse to December 3rd.
• Tickets 0300 – 6789 – 222
