FAG HAG: Connolly/ Green: Touring, Women and Theatre, till 13 October

FAG HAG: Joyce Connolly & Chris Green
Tour: till 13th October, details: 0121 440 4203: womenandtheatre@btinternet.com
Runs: 1h 40m, one interval
Review: Rod Dungate, mac, Birmingham, 28th September 2001

A play about the relationships that sometimes exist between a straight woman and a gay man: somewhere an intriguing play is struggling to get out.

Somewhere inside Fag Hag is an intriguing play struggling to get out. In the middle of the second half (far too late) you see what it is, but in its present state it is, sadly, well imprisoned.

Co-writers, comics, Janice Connolly and Chris Green explain in their programme notes that they want to write a play about the deep friendships that often exist between a straight woman and a gay man. Unfortunately the play's two characters, Ryan and Joy, on the evidence of the first half, have no relationship. They exist only at the level of a series of on-going improvisations often based on well-known extracts from films. We are desperate to know more about the characters, about what makes them tick, about what makes them tick together, but we learn nothing.

Up to this point Fag Hag is a play that tells us about the impossibility of a relationship between a straight woman and a gay man.

Actors Alison Belbin and Richard Eton push hard at the material in the first half: the sweat virtually flows from their brows and the interval comes as something of a relief.

The second half brings improvements, the characters actually talk with each other. Ryan, who has revealed earlier that he is thinking of leaving the couple's joint venture for a job in London, has decided to leave. He comes to say goodbye. During the course of the evening he reveals that he had an affair lasting several months with Joy's closest woman friend. This is a surprise, to us as much as Joy: it is also moving. Here, at last, was the play's dramatic kernel.

Just for a moment, Belbin perfectly displays Joy's pain, but then the play shies away from the dilemma as if the moment is too painful for us to watch. The hurt is glossed over and we come back to game playing and recordings of (oh no) OVER THE RAINBOW.

Cast:
Joy: Ali Belbin
Ryan: Richard Eton

Director: Janice Connolly
Design: Janet Vaughan
Lighting: Juliet Forster

2001-09-29 16:07:38