The Multiverse is Gay is a brand-new play performed by Lyceum Young Company. You can only imagine the nerves and courage it took to pull this off for the teens and young adults on stage. It was my pleasure to attend their opening night at the 100-seater Lyceum small theatre, a ‘black box’ cube space with seating set up in L-shape formation for this performance.
A surprisingly moving piece which undoubtedly brought a tear to many an eye at the conclusion of the opening night this evening. At the heart of ‘The Multiverse is Gay’, is the common thread of ‘otherness’ which binds the raggle-taggle group of friends on stage. Others may have branded them as the outsiders, the geeks, the queer kids or the school dropouts, but they know they are a community, a family.
This is certainly an ambitious piece which builds and grows, from a somewhat faltering and confusing start for the audience, the world that the writers have created becomes gradually more real, and under the careful guiding hand of director Sophie Howell the door is gradually opened. This is a world which is not shoved into the face of the audience, instead we are invited in gently at first but with a growing urgency and intensity.
Leading the talented cast is the very watchable Orla Bayne as Amber, who is catapulted into ‘The Big Nowhere’ when she stumbles on a portal door to another world, a sort of Multiverse safe haven, populated by over 600 other ‘Ambers’, all very different. Whilst the Ambers all have the same friends, the outcomes for the various friends have also been very different.
By the time Ryan Simpson as (Gl)amber struts and lip syncs around the stage to a pounding beat, reminiscent of Ru Pauls Drag race, the audience are whooping and clapping in time to the music.
As time goes by Amber 601 realises that she cannot live her whole life in the big nowhere, with multiple versions of herself, however safe it is. She wants to live in the real world with her real friends and is willing to take real risks to get back.
A show that reminds us that all futures are not the same, that we live in the fluid now, that we all have absolute sovereignty over our bodies and sexual and gender identities and that we can all choose and shape our own outcomes.
Playing until Saturday 15th April 2023, https://lyceum.org.uk/
Reviewer: Greg Holstead
Reviewed: 11th April 2023
North West End Rating: ★★★
Running time – 1hrs 20mins
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