A Generous Lover ☆☆☆☆☆
LaJohn Joseph
Camden People’s Theatre, London
IMHO, LaJohn Joseph is one of the most compelling performers around so I suggest you hot foot it down to the Camden People’s Theatre to catch this all-too-short rerun of their solo show, “A Generous Lover”, that wowed audiences and critics at Edinburgh Fringe in 2018.
It tells the story of JJ and their lover, Orpheus, whose descent into the underworld of schizophrenia and incarceration is told in a myriad of styles, including song – beautifully rendered cover versions songs by Kate Bush and David Bowie, amongst others.
The writing is sublime and the delivery a wonderfully chaotic mix of characters and voices, from arch vintage Hollywood diva to salty Scouse. As they chart their epic journey through the inferno, the characters from the psych ward come to vivid life. JJ admits that there is something seductive about madness until they themselves get mistaken for a patient.
Joseph’s transgender retro femme persona is the perfect guide through this underworld as gritty realism rubs elegantly-dressed shoulders with epic poetry, it shows the highs and the lows of living with someone suffering from mental illness. From Dionne Warwick to Dante, the allusions and illusions of this show will have you mesmerised. Heart-breaking and hilarious in equal measure. Don’t miss it.
Till Sept 21
https://www.cptheatre.co.uk/
September 24 & 25 HOME, Manchester
September 28 The Byre, St Andrews
Review by Jonathan KempQueerguru London Correspondent Jonathan Kemp writes fiction and non-fiction and teaches creative writing at Middlesex University. He is the author of two novels – London Triptych (2010), which won the 2011 Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award, and Ghosting (2015) – and the short-story collection Twentysix. (2011, all published by Myriad Editions). Non-fiction works include The Penetrated Male (2012) and Homotopia?: Gay Identity, Sameness and the Politics of Desire (2015, both Punctum Books).
Labels: 2019, Jonathan Kemp, London Theatre, review
