The Luncheon ☆☆☆
By Kace Monney and Luis Amalia
Curated by Otherland Theatre
Tristan Bates Theatre
“Do not come looking for answers”, the blurb warns.
The performances are engaging and flawless, the two actors engaging with each other with vitality and energy and a great familiarity. It’s unclear how scripted this is, as there’s no writing credit or directing credit. That pervasive term ‘curated by’ gives little away.
At one point Amalia asks if there are any casting directors in the house, and one can’t help feeling this is directed at casting directors, aimed at showing off both actors’ skills at their finest, which it does to great effect. But whilst there are moments of tense action and great comedy, there’s little in the way of a plot or story.
This is surreal, avant garde theatre, knowing and postmodern, with plenty of meta in evidence as they discuss theatre and the theatre world and force us to step outside of the conventions of the fourth wall and linear narrative.
It ends as randomly as it begins, with no neat conclusions or resolutions and for me at least a strange sense of dissatisfaction – not a very substantial meal.
https://www.tristanbatestheatre.co.uk/whats-on/the-queer-season
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 Theater, review
