A surreal, unpredictable performance that, while visually and conceptually compelling, is sometimes emotionally diluted by its density and uneven execution. Rating
Good
An ongoing collaboration between Nile Harris and Malcom-X Betts, Temporary Boyfriend has developed through years of working together across different projects in NYC. It takes shape as a duet that blurs intimacy and estrangement, queerness and kinship, history and the importance and immediacy of the present moment. In this iteration, staged as part of Park Nights 2025 in the Serpentine Pavilion, Hyde Park, the performance feels both highly personal and openly experimental. Rather than presenting a finished work, the two artists invite the audience into an unfolding process of navigating not only their relationship with each other but with others, and with the structures that shape them, in ways which are playful, political, and confessional. It is a performance that thrives on discomfort, uncertainty, and the volatile energy of the present moment.
The opening scene, composed purely of dance, feels abstract yet symbolic. Moving fluidly between moments of synchronicity and chaos, the performers enact what seems to be an interpretive exploration of queer intimacy, as a dynamic of both struggle and support, intimacy and distance. Relationships are framed as intentionally unstable: the phrase “temporary boyfriend” encapsulates the instability, yet faith, ambition, and political drive emerge as constants. The refrain “business before the bedroom” and its sharper echo “politics before punani” set private desire against public responsibility, situating sex within a larger struggle for identity and survival.
Harris and Betts embody what it means to live as Black and queer in not just the USA but the world today. This context is crucial to the work: it is not only a performance of intimacy between two individuals, but also an enactment of survival and self-definition within structures that too often deny or distort those identities. The instability of relationships on stage mirror the instability imposed by broader social and political conditions, where Black queer lives are threatened.
The performance’s strongest impact comes from its interplay of light, sound, and space. From the very beginning, the staging makes the room an integral part of the storytelling. The audience encircles the centre of the stage, each viewer occupying a unique perspective. A tree at the centre acts as a visual anchor, while the gravel floor transforms every movement into part of the soundscape. The carefully choreographed lighting effects further fracture perception, build tension, and allow for unique interpretations of the performance: for some spectators, the performers move in the light; for others, in shadow. In this way, the piece demonstrates how positionality, both where you sit and who you are, shapes the story you take away.
The density of the performance is perhaps its greatest challenge. At times the work seems to strain under the weight of its themes: sexuality, religion, political action, family, love, and ambition all surface, sometimes simultaneously. The result is that the piece occasionally speaks broadly without always reaching emotional depth. The spoken sections, less synchronised than the movement, produce moments that feel awkward or underdeveloped. In striving to say everything, the performance risks saying too little.
Even so, the energy of Betts and Harris’ improvisation remains consistently compelling. Audience interaction, though minimal, reinforces the sense of a live, co-created event. And while the performance is occasionally uneven, it is never dull. What emerges is less a singular message than a provocation, emphasising that meaning is shaped by who you are, where you sit, and what you choose to carry away.
Created & Performed by Malcom-X Betts and Nile Harris
Sound and Music by Geng PTP
Scenic and lights by Dyer Rhoads
Originally commissioned by: the Chocolate Factory Theater, Pink Fang, and Under the Radar Festival.
This performance is now finished.
