boobytrapped begins with an intriguing question. When two gay men meet in a men-only gay environment, should it make any difference that one of them is trans?
Freddie Harberfellner’s body-swap comedy introduces Simon, a trans gay man, and Kevin, a cis gay man, whose attraction in a nightclub quickly turns to conflict when Kevin discovers Simon is trans. A magical twist then leaves each inhabiting the other’s body.
It sounds like the premise for broad comedy, and there are plenty of laughs, but the device allows the play to explore something considerably more interesting. Both men are suddenly forced to negotiate not only an unfamiliar body, but the assumptions, insecurities and prejudices that accompany it.
Haberfellner and Ermis Makides give strong performances, particularly as the developing conflict gradually gives way to compassion and understanding. There are uncomfortable observations about masculinity, misogyny, and prejudice within the gay community itself, without the play pretending there are easy answers.
Not everything lands. A lengthy discussion involving pineapple on pizza stretches its metaphor so far that I eventually lost sight of precisely what it was trying to say.
But boobytrapped raised questions about sex, gender, disclosure and expectation in gay male spaces that I realised I had never properly considered. It doesn’t need me to provide the answers. Its success is I left examining some of my own assumptions.
boobytrapped, 21:30, theSpace on the Mile – Space 2, until 29 August
