★★★★
Whereas satire aims to hold a mirror up to the flaws of our society, this wildly un-PC farce,The Homosexuals, Or ‘Faggots’, does away with subtleties and goes straight for the throat, like a javelin hurled straight at Darlinghurst.
Warren (Simon Burke) and Kim (Simon Corfield) have it all – a well-located apartment, financial comfort, and each other. But when Kim is publicly shamed for offending a transsexual academic, whom Warren must interview for his website, the stage is set for an epic farce involving a slew of tasteless costumes, several unwanted house guests, and a meatball meal with a problematic title.
Writer Declan Greene has kept his fingers to the pulse of his community just long enough to find the vein and press a razor to it. This may be the single most politically incorrect play to have ever been staged at Griffin, but its strength is in knowing who its real targets are. Barbed missives are fired off at trans people, people of colour, and the whole spectrum of LGBTQI+ identities, but the true butt of the joke is Greene’s own community: white, rich, cisgendered gay men, too comfortable to fight with integrity for their brothers and sisters.
As the married couple at the centre of events, the two Simons shine. Burke’s Warren is tremendously entertaining, dry and vicious but incredibly responsive; even boyish, when teased with the prospect of a tryst with Lucacz (Lincoln Younes), a handsome young model Warren has lured into a faux photo shoot. Corfield’s vapid mincing leads him down a surprisingly despicable path, which he pulls off with aplomb. And as both the trans protester Bae Bae and meth-addicted burglar Pam, Mama Alto brings an uncompromising energy that could only fit in this kind of high farce.
The heart of the play is Diana (Genevieve Lemon), a trans woman determined to offend, whose speech during the maelstrom of the third act grounds every insult preceding it. Lemon is a treasure, bombastic and unapologetic, arriving onstage in one disgusting costume only to exchange it for another, equally grotesque facade. Designer Marg Horwell has done a superb job of the costume design – she should be ashamed of herself.
Director Lee Lewis lets Greene’s web of lies and deceit pile up until it all collapses into chaos. How the five-strong cast manages to survive the mash-and-gravy-strewn storm that is the ending – not to mention the cleverly concealed stage hydraulics – is beyond this critic, save to say that the actors have impeccable control.
It’s harder to dismiss as ‘problematic’ a play that indulges in its issues so gleefully, one which revels in the dangers of unbridled free speech and the flaws of language and discourse. The Homosexuals takes old form and makes it so new it hurts to look at it. It’s hugely offensive, and certainly a farce, but at least you don’t have to pay $120 to see it.
Photo: Brett Boardman
The Homosexuals, Or ‘Faggots’is playing at SBW Stables Theatre until Saturday April 29.
