Jonathan Harvey’s ‘Beautiful Thing’ at the West Yorkshire Playhouse,Tuesday 4th June 2013, reviewed by Vicki Galloway-Place …
“There’s nowt so queer as folk”
I read this play a couple of years ago, so when I heard it was on at the West Yorkshire Playhouse I jumped at the chance to go and see it. However, I have a memory like a sieve and couldn’t remember much about the play other than I really enjoyed reading it and that the storyline centred around two male characters discovering that they were gay and the responses of others to this.
Having now watched the play, beautifully acted and directed, I think my memory was a little obscured. Yes the play is about two young lads discovering their love for one another but Beautiful Thing is so much more than this. The ‘gay’ plot is almost a side-line and that was refreshing. I was watching was a love story naturally blossoming between two people, I was watching the dysfunctional relationship between a boy and his father and another one between a boy and his mother, and the mother’s several dysfunctional relationships with a string of men….domestic abuse, unrequited love, working class struggles, growing up on a council estate where everyone knows everyone else’s business.
The list of what could be a depressing turn of events is endless but due to the witty script and the perfectly cast characters, watching this play was an altogether uplifting experience. The play was full of everything I love in a theatre performance – gritty characters, lots of different surprises in the set, quirky direction combined with naturalistic acting and a cracking soundtrack.
There’s a small cast of five actors with the notable and wonderful Suranne Jones as Sandra. I fully expected her to lead the small cast – and this is no disrespect to Suranne, who acted brilliantly as always – but it was Jake Davies as Jamie who stole the show, closely followed by Ste his love interest played by Danny-Boy Hatchard.
Whenever I got that feeling that something magical was happening on stage (which was quite often) I found myself analysing the components – and there in every moment was Jake Davies effortlessly portraying confusion, hurt, love, anger. In a time when the arts are cruelly threatened by – …well we all know who by! – am reassured to know that as I grow older the theatre is left in very capable hands, if we have young actors such as Jake and Danny-boy leading the way.
Set in a block of council flats the play takes us inside the lives of three neighbours. Sandra (Suranne Jones) and her son Jamie, with Ste and his dad (who we never see) at one side and Leia (another great casting played by Zaraah Abrahams) at the other.
The frames of the three neighbours doors make up the set, Sandra’s surrounded by hanging baskets. Washing is drying outside and an abandoned shopping trolley is hanging from the wall – all the classic signifiers of your standard block of council flats to set the scene.
The first four characters are introduced quickly, Sandra nagging her son, Leia hanging out with Jamie and Ste coming home from his job at the leisure centre. It is the entrance of Ste that changes the dynamics. Leia clearly has a crush on him, Sandra respects him and Jamie looks up to him. Danny-Boy plays him so well that you immediately see how the other characters are drawn to him. He is respectful to everyone he meets, your heart melts when he rushes in to make tea for his dad and brother, and he plays a mean game of football. Through his conversations you discover that he is working hard at school and his part-time job to make a go of his life, to change his life – ultimately to get away from his dad – who we learn beats him on a regular basis.
It is these beatings that send Ste to seek refuge at Jamie’s house. Initially they share tea and stories, topping and tailing in bed. The connection between these two characters develops seamlessly as the play progresses. I don’t think, in all the theatre I have seen over the years, I have been witness to a more tender and loving scene as the scene when Jamie rubs soothing foot lotion into Ste’s aggressive bruises on his back. The use of pauses here is a master-class in both acting and directing. There is no shying away from the silences. You could put a hundred words into the characters mouths, create a hundred thoughts, but you don’t need to; the moment speaks for itself. It was one of the most moving scenes I have ever had the pleasure of watching at the theatre.
Act one is taken up with the introduction of the characters, their relationships with one another and the boys first kiss, followed by their awkward meeting afterwards. You can’t help feeling that although there is a clear sense of: This is awkward because we are both young men and that kiss took us by surprise and we’re not really sure how to deal with it, but it is an awkwardness that anyone can relate to who has had that difficult second meeting after the first kiss – regardless of sexual preference.
The relationship of Ste and Jamie is such that the boys discuss what happened and move on with an equally awkward kick about with the football (due to Jamie’s lack of skill with the ball). They deal with their new feelings and relationship together one step at a time tackling each issue as it arises which they do in act two.
Ste is petrified of his abusive father finding out, and Jamie’s mum does find out after the boys are spotted at the local gay nightclub together. Suranne Jones shines in this scene, flipping between the love of a mother and the shock of a mother who has just found out that her son is gay. The shouting and anger coupled with the fear for her son’s future and her maternal instincts to protect and comfort him are countered by a distraught Jamie firing back through his tears at his mother’s feeling of betrayal.
The third wheel of this scene is the comical character of hippie Tony played by Oliver Farnworth. He plays Sandra’s love interest throughout the play and we laugh at his uncomfortable attempts to build a relationship with Jamie. In this scene he is telling Jamie that ‘it’s alright to be gay’ in his calm, laid back, supportive way. This would all be very well if he wasn’t walking around the stage in tight underpants and very little else! Nevertheless this light relief is a necessity in this otherwise emotionally fuelled scene.
The play concludes with time having passed on and the characters dancing in the nightclub: Sandra with Leia and Ste with Jamie, a calm, natural and blissful end to the performance. Yes it could have ended in death, sadness, lovers torn apart – you half expect this to happen but the fact that it doesn’t is uplifting. You are left feeling content and happy and the realisation that sometimes good things do happen in the world regardless of race, religion or sexual preference and that in its simplest form love is easy and when it’s meant to be it will be.
A truly wonderfully directed play, with pieces of set rising from the floor, lighting that matched the mood, and characters who remained on stage after their scene to finish their cigarette or try to figure out their thoughts on their doorstep – Nikolai Foster merges non-naturalistic elements with purely naturalistic acting, allowing the audience to commit to the journey of the characters from the outset. I found myself endeared to the characters through their struggles and some truly hilarious, well timed writing by Jonathan Harvey.
My only criticism would be the fight between Jamie and Sandra – from my seat (which was restricted viewing, so I am being picky) you could clearly see the stage fighting choreography which for a split second brought me back to reality and out of the world that had being cleverly crafted. That said, I and both of my friends, thoroughly enjoyed the performance and were talking about it for a good while after the play had finished.
Beautiful Thing is simply that. A beautiful thing! A tale of love, life and coming of age. I would encourage everyone to go and see it if you can get tickets the tour moves on to the Theatre Royal in Brighton from June 10th to 15th.