LORD ARTHUR'S BED REVIEWS

BRIGHTON ARGUS

   Lord Arthur's Bed
   Theatre North

****
The really shocking thing here is not the nudity, it's the honesty of this new play. Donald and Jim discover they are not the first gay couple to live in their property and exorcise the ghosts by acting out the story of Lord Arthur, his male mistresses and their trial in 1870. The Victorian queens were living life on the edge, but as the re-enactment progresses the cracks in the modern relationship start to show. In an affecting speech about not wanting to be different, Jim displays his doubts about their lifestyle, leading later to an argument about how much progress has been made. Not just an account of a sensational trial but a raw play that tackles homosexual issues head-on.
Friends' Meeting House, 14-16 May, 7:30pm, £8.00 (£6.00), fringe pp42.
tw rating 4/5
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    MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS

     By Philip Radcliffe

     Lord Arthur's Bed @ The Lowry Studio

A SELECTION of innovative and daring theatre" is promised for the Lowry Studio's season of ten plays, which kicked off with a peculiar, not to say queer, confection in Lord Arthur's Bed.

With warnings of nudity, adult themes and strong language, common euphemisms these days for anything goes, Martin Lewton's new play for Theatre North can lay some claim to being "daring" by anyone's standards.

Two gay men, Donald and Jim, celebrating their civil partnership in 2008, connect through the history of the house they happen to live in with two cross-dressers, Ernest Boulton (Stella) and Frederick Park (Fanny) celebrating the former's "marriage" to the homosexual Lord Arthur Clinton MP in 1868. It's a story that contains more than a shade of Oscar Wilde.

Based on historical fact, the story is re-enacted of Lord Arthur's goings-on and ultimate notoriety, ending in the trial of Boulton and Park for indecent behaviour, in a theatre cloakroom whilst dressed in women's attire, and in his Lordship's subsequent suicide.

Telling the tale causes Donald and Jim to question - and reaffirm - their own relationship.

If you don't mind the bad language, some nudity, and simulated sexual acts between the two, you might well be diverted and amused by it as much as a largely male audience - I counted a dozen women out of an audience of 100 - obviously did.

An evening of gay delight, you might say.

Paul Kendrick and Paul Spruce, equipped only with a bed and one frock, play all the characters engagingly - fine performances and a promising start to the season.
 

Reviewed: Fri, 12 September, 2008