69 Shades of Gay – Smock Alley – Review by Fran Winston

Smock Alley Theatre, Exchange Street Lower, Temple Bar, Dublin 8.

Runs until June 11th at 7.30pm nightly.

Adults only. Tickets €25/20 Student concession €15 Thursdays only.

Aiden is a cute gay boy about town but he’s found the one and is ready to settle down. Well actually he’s found his 69th in Marcus but he is pretty sure that this is the real deal. Convinced that Marcus is going to pop the question and ask him to move in with him he sets about planning their life together – well their sofa anyway – while reflecting on past encounters as he deletes contacts, photos and dating apps from his phone in anticipation of a life of gay abandon with his Mr Wright.

Written by Stuart Thomas and performed by Rob Murphy – best known as Buffy from the Cheerios pantos – there is a reason this is adults only. From the off there are references to sex toys, sex acts and general sexual shenanigans. Nothing is sacred as he runs the gamut of his relationships and I am pretty sure many of the audience will leave better educated about the broad spectrum of sexual possibilities that exist.

Murphy plays Aiden in a highly exaggerated OTT queenie manner that fits in with the gay stereotype – a gay by numbers if you will. You name a gay cliché and it’s in there. From the casual one night hook ups (which he doesn’t count as part of his 69) to his love and knowledge of Kylie to his beard who calls and texts him throughout the play. On the whole this does work and is very funny. However a certain amount of knowledge of gay culture is required to get some of the gags and it never really comes up for air to allow the audience to process anything they have seen.

Murphy does a great job involving the audience and shamelessly runs around the stage wearing Aiden’s confidence and cockiness much like the bath robe he wears for about the first 25 minutes of the show. When Aiden is up and excited about things he is brilliant but he does struggle slightly when it dips to a more serious tone. I did feel that was more to so with the pacing of the show than his ability as performer though. The script is so breakneck that any sudden change of pace simply jolts.

The set is basically Aiden’s apartment and sets a perfect tone for this show. Murphy uses the space well and he truly does inhabit it. The audience are invited into his living room to hang out with him – he is totally in charge here.

Unfortunately the last 10 minutes appeared to be dragged out to try and get one final belly laugh and the particular joke wore a bit thin after about 3 or 4 minutes. Also it never really felt like there was any resolution or that Aiden had really learned anything. I wasn’t expecting that though. The purpose of this play is to make you laugh not to engage you in an analysis of the gay lifestyle. It is somewhat one dimensional but that doesn’t stop it being entertaining.

This had the potential to be heart wrenching in places but missed the beats. However in terms of laugh out loud hilarity it ticks the boxes once you approach it with an open mind and a certain degree of cynicism. If you are easily offended or consider yourself prudish though I would give this a miss. Shows like this work best with an upbeat engaged audience and if you just head along to be outraged you’ll ruin it for everybody.