Music by Philip Venables
Wtiting and Direction by Ted Huffman
Based on novel by Larry Mitchell and Ned Asta
HOME
MANCHESTER INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL
The Faggots & Their Friends Between Revolutions achieved cult status since Larry Mitchell self published in 1977. In a world where acceptance and compassion can flow generously and hopefully then quickly appear to ebb away again, this new production feels timely as LGBTQIA+ rights and safety seems to be worryingly under threat. The blending of a wide range of musical styles, instruments and voices are a carousing anthem for unity and change. A high point of this performance is Kit Green breaking the fourth wall to bring the whole audience together in song. There is a palpable sense of unified passion as everyone literally sings from the same hymn sheet. The word Faggot is cherished here and used with real love in this celebration of queerness and the revolutionary attitude to male patriarchal society required to achieve self-determination.
This is the third collaboration between Composer Philip Venables and Writer/Director Ted Huffman. This new opera commissioned by Factory International is one of the touring productions which premieres at HOME before going to festivals in France and Austria. Previous work includes a highly disturbing opera production of Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis which apparently induced panic attacks in some of the audience members. Here there is a warmth and generosity in the music that is playful and highly engaging. The Faggots are alongside the faeries, the faggatinas and the women who love women. The music here has opera sitting alongside baroque, bossa nova, and club music. Fifteen musicians, singers, dancers and actors play multiple instruments from lutes and accordions to violins and viola da gambas. The score vividly evokes the sexually charged urgency as magic cock fluid is ejaculated, the folky sense of campfire singing in a Commune and the euphoria of a drug fuelled club night.
The history of the patriarchal society is told as a subversive fairytale. This story flips the history books and slyly suggests it’s the power and paper hungry men who are the aberrations in Society and its the Faggots and their friends who are the original people. All the performers have their moment in the spotlight with some beautiful virtuoso performances. However it’s the inimitable Kit Green and dancer/choreographer Yandass who primarily tell the story. They are a perfect foil for each other with Green all laconic, fluid elegance and pithy delivery whereas Yandass is a powerhouse of taut, passionate energy.
The stage at HOME looks like a vast black box creating a wonderful sense of looking back in time and seeing these performers in a stripped back way where there are no other visual distractions…they have to be seen…and they are seen…as extraordinary, gifted and ultimately human individuals who will carry on and survive whatever Revolutions are yet to come.
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