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The Review - THEATRE by HOWARD LUXTON
Published: 4 December 2009

Battle of the emotions

COCK
Royal Court

JOHN is going through a difficult patch in his relationship with his boyfriend of seven years when he finds himself experimenting with a woman and discovering his straight side.
He’s very confused. Not only does he find the genitalia of the divorcee who’s picked him up amazing, she even likes reading the same novels.
He loves his partner but is aware of the faults in their relationship.
What the hell is he to do?
Mike Bartlett’s new play and James Macdonald’s production strip away all but the essentials.
With the audience seated in a miniature pinewood bullring, designer Miriam Buether sets it on a green disc, banishing furniture.
It opens with skinny, tousle-haired John and his slightly older partner having an argument, circling each other like fighting cocks.
There is an edgy feel throughout of everyone repositioning themselves physically and tactically in a battle for emotions.
Scenes stop and start, signalled by a turn away or a moment’s beat; bouts of the contest are marked with a chime like a boxing contest bell.
Sex scenes are played in explicit detail, but fully clothed and usually without touching, yet so effectively they take your breath away.
The stylisation of the production emphasises the harsh reality of the dialogue and the raw energy of the playing as the underlying strains of these relationships are brutally exposed.
Ben Whishaw captures both the excitement and the bafflement of John and Andrew Scott as his partner (John is the only character given a name) and the shock of someone complacently secure seeing those certainties disintegrate.
John invites Katherine Parkinson’s bemused woman to a dinner (cooked by his partner) where each of his lovers expects him to declare a decision in their favour.
A complication is an extra guest: the partner’s father, urging John not to destroy the relationship. Paul Jesson makes it seem the natural response of a father concerned for his child’s happiness but not so long ago it would have seemed out of character.
I hope times have really changed.
So many of us experience a break-up in a relationship that this could be gruelling to watch, but Barlett has also made it very funny.
Cock is a totally engrossing 90-minutes of drama in which every moment counts.
Until December 19
020 7565 5000

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