The Pride, by Alexi Kaye Campbell
Royal Court Theatre, 13th December 2008
The Pride tells two stories in parallel using the same three characters. In 1958 Oliver is a writer. Sylvia, his illustrator, is married to Philip, who refuses to acknowledge his homosexuality, even though Oliver falls in love with him. In 2008 Oliver is addicted to sex with strangers and fetish actors in Nazi uniforms. Philip is his long-suffering boyfriend and Sylvia is their straight friend, once again a pillar of femanine support and compassion.
The first narrative takes place in a time of sexual repression and the second in a time of out-and-proud gay freedom. Despite this contrast the characters in both periods still grapple with emtions they don’t quite understand and the results are the same – loneliness, un-fulfilment and guilt. Philip’s self-deception in the 50’s is matched by Oliver’s lack of self-respect in the present.
The production is intimately presented as a simple mix of the functional and symbolic. Table and chairs were dominated by a vast tarnished mirror that helped unite and contrast the narratives. Each scenario was so markedly in its morals and attitudes that it felt as if the characters had, like Alice, tumbled through a Looking Glass into a topsy-turvy world. There were also surreal moments when the characters in the different periods became ghostly visible to each other through the dark glass of time.
The minimal set gave the cast a chance to create the period detail themselves through speech and gesture. In 1958 they spoke in the mannered and clipped way of post-war Britain, inviting comparions with Coward and Rattigan. Since the style has become so parodied the characters ran the risk of imitating the forbbiden love of ‘Brief Encounter’. The dialogue in 2008 was contrastingly unfetterd, humerous, sharp and rude and the cast seemed more at ease speaking it, carrying it off at a brisk pace.
In 1958 Oliver movingly recounts an epiphany he had in Greece that the future promised understanding and happiness for homosexuals. His counterpart in the present is disappointingly needy, pathetic, lost and self-obsessed. From being shockingly raped in 1958, he now indulges in simulated fetish rape simply because he is bored. All the hard won political rights and social freedoms are essentially meaningless if self-respect is lacking and so Pride is emphasised as crucial to a happy and fulfilling life.
CAST: Oliver: Bertie Carvel, Philip: JJ Field, Sylvia: Lyndsey Marshall, Man/Peter/Doctor: Tim Steed, Director: Jamie Lloyd
