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Bit parts: Garry Starr Performs Everything @swkplay

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Garry Starr Performs Everything is a bare-bones (and bare buttocks) tribute to the theatre. Theatre may be in trouble, and audiences are down, but Garry Starr aims to save the theatre and bring back to the masses every style of theatre possible. As long as each style involves wearing a transparent white leotard or a skimpy thong. And tassels. It's part comedy, part physical comedy and part perv at Gary's physical prowess. The sentiment "if you've got it, flaunt it" applies here. So here we are with a show that has been around for some years and is having its first proper London run at the Southwark Playhouse (Borough) through Christmas. The premise is that Garry Starr (played by Damien Warren-Smith) has left the Royal Shakespeare Company over artistic differences. He is now on a mission to save the theatre from misrepresentation and worthy interpretations by doing things such as a two-minute Hamlet, recreating scenes from a Pinter play using unsuspecting audience

Gay gore: Tumulus @Sohotheatre


Something is unnerving about Tumulus. It isn't just that some audience members are asked if they want apple juice or Lucozade before the piece begins (although that's pretty weird too if you're unfamiliar with the subject matter). But it's that the show will leave you with the thought that in the London gay community there are a group of professional men who are perfectly happy to let you die. Just not in their own flats. So beware partying with anyone with easy access to Hampstead Heath.

A short piece it's about respectable professional Anthony (Ciarán Owens). He has a stable job and a penchant for young boys and 36-hour chemsex parties. When his ex-lover is found dead on Hampstead Heath was it just another overdose that happens every week. Or was it something more sinister?

The life of Anthony, his addictions and the people around him weave together like a gay gore whodunnit. But writer Christopher Williams creates a funny and playful account of life in London, particularly in gay north London.

Ian Hallard and Harry Lister Smith in their short red shorts and crisp white shirts play a variety of men in and around Anthony's life. They also create various sound effects as if they're in a radio play, which adds to the novelty of the piece.

But it's the real-life story about the Grindr Killer that makes this piece feel disturbingly plausible. When overdosing is as easy as an extra droplet, there's a fine line between ecstasy and death. And when things go wrong, rather than explain things to the police and risk a promising career, is it easier to just dump someone in a park, hoping they'll sleep it off? Stephen Port may not be an isolated incident. Now there's something to contemplate heading home from Soho in the evening.

Directed by Matt Steinberg, Tumulus is at the Soho Theatre until 4 May.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️



Photos by Darren Bell

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