Ode to Joy (How Gordon Got to Go to the Nasty Pig Party), Stories Untold Productions and James Ley, Sydney Festival, Neilson Nutshell, 16-21 Jan

 

This is a wild rollicking hour of entertainment, the story of a public servant investigating the effects of Great Britain leaving the European Union on Scotland, who finds himself in the middle of the wild world of debauched European sex parties. It comes with a full glossary of gay for the audience (as a practicing homosexual for over 20 years I appreciated it as it also told me about the effects of a fair few party drugs I've never gotten my hands on), an ever-present dance soundtrack, and is enthusiastically narrated by a character called Manpussy (Marc MacKinnon), who comes across like a Scottish Brian Blessed with a filthier vocabulary. 

It's a fast and furious comedy played largely on a bare stage with a few costumes up the back, and is probably the definition of special-interest-theatre, but, dammit, I was definitely interested. It's an act of queer liberation at its most primal, looking at the networks gay men build around them and how these are formed and deformed by how they react to the society around them. 

Lawrence Boothman as the titular Gordon is gorgeously gormless, goofy but also clearly game for anything. Sean Connor as Manpussy's partner in both life and in lust, Cumpig is a good foil, both playing up to Gordon's emerging lusts and endearingly amenable to any of Manpussy's outrageous suggestions.

It's a brisk, wild piece of festival eccentricity and a fine theatrical aperitif to begin the year with.