FOAM

Set in a British public lavatory, this recent play about an infamous violent, gay skinhead fits perfectly in the old Substation on Sydney’s Taylor Square.  With its industrial grunge, Qtopia in the nearby old Darlinghurst cop shop uses it for queer theatre.

So down there we meet Nicky Crane, aged 15, no stranger to this beat, but now shaving his head and being seduced into the skinhead club by a smooth-talking fascist called Mosely. 

It’s 1975 and Harry McDonald’s play follows Crane through a handful of gay encounters, some violent, until a harrowing final one of Crane dying 20 years later in an HIV/AIDS ward.

The cast are consistent and convincing, and all realistic in various British accents. Joshua Merten is a photographer ambushing Crane backstage after his star singing gig, and later an amateur porn producer, both gay characters desperate to be sexually dominated by Crane.

Further challenging our empathies is Timothy Springs playing a gay man just out of the gaol for bashing a skinhead.  And Chad Traupmann is Mosely, recruiting Crane (why is not revealed) and giving him trademark Doc Martens with red laces.

Young Patrick Phillips is an appealing, enigmatic, almost languid Crane, giving nothing away, explosive sometimes, but too unthreatening to be unlikeable.  We never see him actually skin-headed nor dressed for street violence. 

Big themes simmer in this important play but Gavin Roach’s production lacks beats, tension and theatrical punctuation, leaving good actors - with their story - wandering the open stage.  Megan Heferen’s lighting gives definition but Akesiu Poitaha’s near continual sound ignores the music of the period for a musak blur.  

The promise of Foam to explore extremism and shame, masculinity and indoctrination is here only partly delivered.

Martin Portus

Photographer: Robert Catto