Jules Jones

kalypso_v and I went to the Royal Exchange on Friday night to see Beautiful Thing. It turned out to be useful to have not got around to it until the final week of the run, because the performance was followed by a 40 minute set of half a dozen short monologues and duologues examining how things have changed for young LGBT people since the play was first performed in 1993.

The play was excellent, and very well adapted to the small theatre-in-the-round space of the Royal Exchange. The theatre's design means that anyone in the stage level seating is no further than six meters from the edge of the stage, and can readily see the audience on the other side of the stage, which has the odd effect of making you more aware that it's a play while at the same time drawing you in to the action. This makes for an intensely emotional experience when it works, as it did on Friday. A script that runs from hilariously funny to frightening to tender and back again within a few lines, and an uplifting ending that leaves you feeling hopeful without being saccharine; played by a cast that was utterly convincing as the play's characters.

The half dozen new pieces were of variable quality, although all were worth watching. The two standouts for me were Bread Bin and Snood, both of which I'd love to see again. (And I wish charlieallery could have seen Bread Bin, she'd love it.)