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A promising play exploring taboo sexual desires with unrestrained force.Summary
Rating
Ok
When kicked out by his fiancé, Sigmund finds himself sharing a flat with Christian. Both harbouring a painful past, they find a shared dark desire. What begins as companionship quickly turns to love and then mutates into a horrifying, lust driven desire for sadism and cannibalism. Sweetmeat doesn’t shy away from taboo but rather thrusts it in your face, violently and unapologetically.
The play has a promising start with witty jokes and dark humour that merge with unravelling trauma. Jamie McClean plays the doting Christian superbly; his lust for Sigmund is evident right from the start. Matthew Dunlop too offers a brilliant Sigmund, who is dark and disturbed, medicating himself through various drugs. It becomes clear that both feel like outsiders, fuelled by trauma and impermissible sexual desires. But the trauma does become overwritten into the script, diverting too frequently from the mounting tension.
The set design is great; a sofa and coffee table that is simplistic yet functions well for the domestic setting. The table features books, such as Hamlet and The 120 Days of Sodom, and it is clear that these are key influences for the characterisation of Christian and Sigmund, yet this is repeated unnecessarily throughout in the dialogue.
Sweetmeat is multifaceted, combining prose with film montages and verbatim theatre. Despite its experimental form, the play works best when it remains domestic and conversational. Given the taboo nature of what is being explored within the play itself, language suffices and the surplus forms used weaken the impact of the contentious subject matter.
Following an interval, the second act is where the tension really starts to ramp up. Ivo de Jager’s writing interrogates the boundaries of social acceptance, of what it means to be perverse. Just when you think he’s not going to take it there, drama erupts in a violent, love driven staging of gory cannibalism. Terrifying yet captivating, nobody holds back. Although relying on shock factor and provocation, it leaves you with an unsettling feeling as you exit the theatre.
Where the writing does fall short is in its length. With some careful cuts and a shorter run time, Sweetmeat would excel. Similarly, when subtle, the themes excel, though too frequently the writing explains to us things that can already be inferred.
Sweetmeat is a promising play of unfiltered, taboo desires. It tackles controversial themes in a disturbing manner, commendable for its unrestrained approach to non-conformity. This play is certainly not for the faint of heart!
Written by: Ivo de Jager
Directed by: Connor Geoghegan
Lighting by: Jess Parritt
Sweatmeat plays at Old Red Lion Theatre until 23 November. Further information and tickets available here.
