Between, making its London debut after its Edinburgh Fringe success, promises a powerful examination of gay relationships, and it delivers.
Yet, at first, you do wonder what writer Oskar Brown can bring to the table that a Buzzfeed top 32 “do’s and don’ts of being a gay boyfriend” list can’t. As the play starts off, three pairs of characters, spanning from adolescence to adulthood, examine the quirks of being with someone or wanting someone, with charm, humour, and a surprising honesty, but doesn’t instantly touch upon any epiphanies.
But as you’re drawn in by its frank humanity and how easily relatable the characters are, you start to get hit with precise and uncanny insights in belonging to another.
Suddenly, parts of the play start to resonate as profoundly as it engrosses, tenderly touching the heart or cutting cruelly close to the bone, but always striking chords that are deeply affecting. Combine this with some expert writing by way of subtle framing devices and clever themes, it cumulates in a heartbreaking climax.
“It’s a play of brutal truth and honesty applied with unparalleled intelligence.”
Nicholas Campbell and Geoffrey Hyland are also two superb actors. Across their characters they bounce excellent and sometimes polemic chemistry off each other: from awkwardness and spite in one, to love and regret in another.
Whilst having to dart across these wildly different emotions, Campbell and Hyland are effortless and natural in everything they do, and always feel palpably emotionally and physically connected to each other on stage in every person they become. They are as stunning to watch as they are sizzling to look at.
Don’t be quick to judge the show by its steamy poster and its smoking cast. It’s a play of brutal truth and honesty applied with unparalleled intelligence. Moving, surprising, and deft, Between is an intense and soul-bearing 50 minutes of immaculate theatre.
• The King’s Head Theatre, 115 Upper Street, Islington, N1 1QN. Running until Saturday 23rd August. 9.30pm, £17 (£15 concs). www.kingsheadtheatre.com
