Tumulus at Soho Theatre review – ‘a meta-theatrical chemsex thriller’

Harry Lister Smith, Ciaran Owens and Ian Hallard. Photo Credit Darren Bell.

★★★ by Ifan Llewelyn

The culture surrounding the use of chems to enhance sexual experiences within the gay community, popularly known as Chemsex, has become a cultural phenomenon within queer entertainment, with several plays (and yes, musicals) hitting stages across London. Following a sold-out run at last year’s VAULT Festival, Tumulus takes to the Upstairs stage of the Soho Theatre in a production that marries the radio play with physical ingenuity.

Anthony (Ciarán Owens) is a not yet thirty-three who casually engages in London’s chemsex scene, though he feels like he has it under control. As our narrator, he relays this story with the verbose style expected from a curator at the British Library. His world is thrown into free-fall as a chem-induced bout of psychosis has him seeing a deceased past hook-up at a hangout. The ghost of his lover insists his death was not the result of an overdose as ruled by the officials who inspected his body on the Hampstead Heath tumulus but was, in fact, a murder. It’s now down to him to investigate and bring the killer to justice. He meets an array of colourful characters (Ian Hallard and Harry Lister Smith) along his quest for the truth, some of whom soon begin to raise suspicion.

This is a production that thinks outside the box when it comes to setting the whistle-stop scenes we pour in and out of throughout the narrative’s progression. Where other productions rely heavily on pre-recorded sound, Tumulus adopts techniques you’d expect to see in a Radio 4 studio, with the slamming of cupboard doors and tapping of shoes. It brings a life to the play that is unexpected but is an absolute delight. When his supporting cast stops playing his sound effects, Anthony is left to provide his own, raising the stakes and brings an intensity to the closing scenes.

Ciarán Owens in Tumulus. Photo Credit Darren Bell.

There are class implications to chemsex practices which weren’t really engaged within this play, with many of Stephen Port’s victims being a world away from the North London upper social circle depicted in Tumulus. When Anthony, an assistant curator of ephemera at the British Library, attends a dinner party of his ex-boyfriend’s high-achieving social circle, it doesn’t read as disparate as intended. As the ex-boyfriend, Lister Smith gives an astonishingly fleshed out performance considering it’s one of many he turns out in the plays short run time. Christopher Adams’ writing reads as well researched, though not directly familiar with the culture, but is still glittered with moments of compelling dialogue. His approach to the culture is one that isn’t moralising, which is to be commended.

Though ultimately not making any succinct statement on the chemsex culture which is quickly becoming endemic within the queer scene, Tumulus is a compelling piece of theatre that innovates and sustains interest, even if it reaches a loud and convenient conclusion.

Tumulus is running at Soho Theatre, 21 Dean Street W1D 3NE until May 4th. Tickets available at SohoTheatre.com.

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