Exhibitionists – King’s Head Theatre

The King’s Head Theatre holds a special place in my heart, as it was the scene of my first ever written review. In 1986, as coursework for my Drama ‘O’ Level, I travelled from the depths of sleepy Surrey to lively Islington for an experimental interpretation of Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit. The production was less memorable than the concept of being squidged in a room at the back of a pub with an audience brought together by existential angst. I’d not only found my people, but learned that theatre could be uncomfortably intimate, messy and weird.

In 2015, I played a sexual health and drugs counsellor, in a production of The Clinic at The King’s Head. My character was based on renowned ‘chemsex’ expert David Stuart (RIP) who was also one of the show’s producers. It was a thrill to perform in that space, which has also seen turns from Hugh Grant, Victoria Wood, Dawn French and Steven Berkhoff. The theatre has a long history of giving a platform to new, challenging and radical writing and has recently moved into a new 200-seater purpose build space just round the corner.

Set over six floors in the corporately bland Islington Square, the new venue also boasts a 50-seater cabaret space and a couple of bars. At the moment, it feels like the new wing of a hospital, rather than the iconic home of fringe theatre, but on the upside, it has the shiniest toilets in London. The first show to debut in the new King’s Head Theatre is Exhibitionists by Shaun McKenna and Andrew Van Sickle. The play is inexplicably set in the high-end art world of San Francisco and is a modern homage to screwball comedies and slapstick farce.

Cocky Disney lawyer Conor (Ashley D Gayle) has married neurotic English runner Mal (Jake Mitchell-Jones). British architect Robbie (Robert Rees)– who once had a toxic marriage with Conor – is now with the tetchy landscape gardener Rayyan (Rolando Montecarlo). In a nod to Noel Coward’s Private Lives, they collide at a friend’s art event and the formative partners run off with each other as their new younger lovers chase after them. By ridiculous coincidence, they all end up in the same hotel, in adjacent rooms, overseen by a flirty Norwegian (Øystein Lode) who owns the Scandi-themed bolthole.

There’s probably a good play in here somewhere, fighting to get out, but it only emerges once or twice. Relationship breakdown, fights over infidelity and violent altercations between couples are emotionally harrowing to experience and should be equally grim to witness on stage. Cruelty abounds at the demise of love and this script lacks that horribly ugly bite.

Even in a madcap comedy, one should empathise with the protagonists and these characters are very hard to love or understand. Jake Mitchell-Jones as Mal brings scene-stealing authenticity to his part in the latter half of the show and when given the chance, shows excellent comedy chops.

The genius of Noel Coward was not just the precision and economy in his writing, but the multi-layered nuance of every sentence. Wit, wisdom and subtlety drips from every quip and comeback in Coward’s dialogue and the gays in this play lack that depth and dexterity. Director Bronagh Lagan deserves credit for tightly orchestrating the slapstick circus and Jess Tucker Boyd does an impressive job with fight direction. There’s no doubt that this cast are working hard, but they need a few more jokes and a bracing dose of emotional truth to really make it work for the audience.

Exhibitionists in on until 10^th of February. https://kingsheadtheatre.com/whats-on/exhibitionists

Reviewer: Stewart Who?

Reviewed: 11th January 2024
North West End UK Rating: