Paul T Davies reviews Neontopia’s production Tuck which is now playing at the Wales Millennium Centre.
Tuck
Millennium Centre, Cardiff.
25 October 2018
4 Stars
Welsh theatre company Neontopia are a new writing company dedicated to providing a platform for bilingual writers in Wales, performing in both Welsh and English, and telling stories perhaps not being told so much in the mainstream. I saw Alun Saunders’s impressive A Good Clean Heart in Edinburgh a couple of years ago, and here he gives us the story of four Cardiff drag queens, the rivalries and bitchiness, yet also the loneliness behind the forced smiles and sequins. Beginning pretty much as you would expect, the play is staged cabaret style in the restaurant at the Millennium Centre, and there are razor sharp one liners and huge audience interaction. However, Saunders’s sensitive, caring script, takes us deep into the heart of despair, working closely with The Samaritans.
It is blessed with a great cast, particularly from the excellent Stifyn Parri as faded, bitter and heart broken queen Patsy Thatcher. (A welcome back to this actor after a long break from performing.) He handles brilliantly the shifting tone from savage public personna to private, lonely alcoholic. Tensions among the gay community is captured perfectly by Gareth Evans in his fine performance as Lola Bipolar, the young upstart who believes lip synching is the only way to perform, yet he doesn’t even know his Herstory, not even a Cher classic! Trying to keep it all together is Iestyn Arwel as Martha Titful, powerful in drag yet helpless to prevent the impending darkness, and Lewis Brown is simply divine as Medusa Massid, struggling to find her/his identity.
In fact, identity and inclusion is the strong theme of the play, making excellent parallels between the gay community and the Welsh language- if you have a more open door, inclusive policy, is there a danger that a strong identity will be eroded? All this may sound a little heavy, but the points are made very securely in an evening teeming with great routines and jokes. The space is a little challenging with some sight line issues, and some throwaway lines are thrown away and inaudible. But co-directors Jess Williams and Mared Swain has harnessed the script and energy well, and the cast will own the space more with each performance. So clear are the relationships and semiotics, I could have watched a fully Welsh spoken version and understood the play, no viewer should feel excluded.
It’s a hugely enjoyable evening, a rollercoaster of an emotional ride, sensitive to mental health challenges, yet also joyous in its pride and celebration of drag and identify. Not many performances of this unique experience, catch it before the glamour is tucked away!
Until 3 November 2018.
