Bacon is an apt name for a show that crackles hot in rich oil, strips of decadently glazed caramel, served with all things good and hearty. Bacon is the bacon of the Fringe. It’s the bite that’s waited for and savoured.
It’s time for Mark to tell his story, it’s been tossing and turning in his head for far too long, and it’s starting to burn. It glues his feet to the past and this little cafe he was destined to be better than. So now when Darren strolls in, tearing up the ritual of work, the present meets the past. Mark is engulfed by every feeling once felt, every ounce of anger bottled and all the love he knows he shouldn’t feel. Darren was only 15, but Mark was too. Both hate themselves for loving one another, at completely different points in their lives and for completely different reasons. At what point does forgiveness not set you free, but shackle you indefinitely? It’s not just a battle between head and heart, but a tug of war between body and soul.
An imposing seesaw takes up most of the stage and is used as a vehicle for Mark and Darren to tell their stories. At times imbalance is presented through a swing of momentum from one end to the other. At times it’s Darren, sometimes it’s Mark and other times it’s both of them, weighted on each end with unwavering stability. And while the dynamics between the bully and victim range from hate to love and back and again, there was an obvious harmony ingrained in the theatre-making. The picture perfect stills are framed with just-the-right lighting. Audio punctates eloquently presented visual sentences. There was a spell-binding chemistry between the two actors. They share words to seamlessly spring off of each other, with a slick precision, passing the baton of narration. They didn’t have to ask you to care, they were in their world. Instead you peer into said world, one of suppressed sexuality and witness tragedy you can’t help but be struck by.
This story can’t be contained, it has to expose why gay relationships bleed at the hands of a world that oppresses so casually. The personal is societal. The societal is personal. Love is as hard as the world around you makes it. When unable to handle what the world throws at them, people do horrible things, and these horrible things are done unto people. Bacon is to be enjoyed thoroughly, but there’s no denying where it comes from, why it’s there, how sad it all really is.
Bacon
15:30 @ Summerhall – Cairns Lecture Theatre
Aug 16-20, 22-27
