Upon entering Rupert Bevans world for a little while, it is like a warm embrace I didn’t want to break apart. The snippet of life he so carefully constructs is gentle yet hard-hitting, real yet meticulously dolled-up. He laments. The gay clubs are filled with straight men, his well-meaning straight girl friend’s aloofness isolates him, the gender and queer studies course he takes at uni studies the very dynamics he faces. Naturally, we froggy jump through dating apps, reminiscing about the first loves and first times, smiling, laughing about the things that we can.
And smile we do, when attention is completely captured by Bevan’s captivating self-expression. He has the look in his eyes that holds the glamour and tragedy of a 60’s housewife. The pain is restrained but completely portrayed as the boyish heartbreak is as carefully sewn as the heartbreak that matures. Poised all while all-over the place when life falls apart.
Though the acting is theatrical and incredibly hilarious, it manages to remain in the realm of realism. The performance meets the writing perfectly. The language is simple yet pointed. And really, it is a breath of fresh theatre to hear words so real and universal that manage never to sound cliched. It comes from an honesty that is obvious and ceaselessly admirable. Tightropes masterfully walked meant heartbreak, humour, lows and highs are layered with care.
The show illuminates a warm glow. A rose-tinted filter obstructs vision in the most wonderful way. It is as if we share the rose tinted glasses that are on Bevan’s face, as opposed to watching him wear them. I can only describe it as watching a film on a stage. Thanks to tastefully cinematic music or lighting that dims ever so slowly. The scenes are so emphatically glamourous.
Some stories have a beginning, middle and end. And some reflect the way life goes as it goes on. Life ends when it does, not at the end of a show. Through all the beautiful anguish we can only laugh to get though, Bevan didn’t wrap things up in a pretty bow. He didn’t need to— the show is just so pretty in it-self.
DARLING BOY
19:45 @ Assembly George Square Studios – Underground Aug 12-16
