Martin Kochanski’s web site / Theatre

 

Edinburgh, August 1998: reviews of “Morgan’s Boys”

The Stage · The List · The Scotsman · Babilonia (Italy)

The Stage(London)

In an opening scene which keeps us guessing, an edgy young male prostitute converses with his supposed client, a jaded, much older man. This two-hander by Martin Kochanski develops into the slowly changing facets of an unlikely growing friendship. Soon it is established that the older man is an ex-prostitute. As he had worked for the same pimp, Morgan, they are able to exchange cheery gossip and lewd stories about the man, calculated to put anyone off male prostitution for good.

The two seem to be playing a game of changing roles, locked in their wrangling mirror image of each other, in a relationship which is not what it seems. The play is seen to be about honesty and the self-deception which the boy uses to make the job bearable. But Kochanski also weaves in the pervading theme of concern and responsibility felt by the older man.

After some over-writing and repetition there are surprises and counter-twists and a closing scene which mounts to Greek tragedy proportions. James Westaway and David Harrold give fine performances in this compassionate and thoughtful play, which would have been the better for a few judicious cuts.

Stella Goomey

The List (Edinburgh & Glasgow)

Rating: *** (highest possible rating is 5 stars)

A middle-aged man with a hidden agenda brings a rent-boy back to his flat. Both are, they say, straight. This is the premise for first-time playwright/director martin Kochanski's brooding and (until the end) surprisingly subtle two-hander about redeeming the sins of the father.

Ignore the functional production values. What matters - the shifting emotions between the two men - is absolutely present in truly fine performances by David Harrold and James Westaway. Even actors this good can't quite steer the text onto the heights of tragic inevitability to which it aspires. The homophobia of the piece is also troubling. Still, it's definitely worth a look.

Donald Hutera

The Scotsman (Edinburgh)

Rating: **** (highest possible rating is 5 stars)

Since health warnings are now given for performances which may cause offence, it seems only just to point out to persons whose sexual preference is to their own sex that this play may be offensive.

The title seems designed to suggest a jolly pirate romp of one kind or another. This very well-made play turns on homophobia among rent-boys of whatever age. It is a little dotty on this score, implying in conformity with the ideas of the religious right that nobody really wants to be gay.

Both the client and the consultant (let's keep it clean, do let's) pass the ultimate test in small-space theatre: they are so convincing that you are there. Nothing happens that could bring the blush of modesty to the cheek of shame since both parties are vying with each other in realism and the splendid pace and thriller tension are offset by a plot incredible enough to be written by a Fringe comedian (maybe it was).

But if you can believe in the plot, the dialogue is exactly right and the direction utterly convincing. Homophobes, whether making the play or as characters in it, can be as self-indulgent as gays but it seems only fair to conceal the denouement, even if it should be well within the dimmest vision after about half an hour. But the remaining hour is quite pleasantly filled by an author whose promised are more likely to be fulfilled when he has discarded his prejudices.

Owen Dudley Edwards

Babilonia (Italy's leading national gay and lesbian magazine)

Ma con l'approsimarse della notte anche il «Fringe» spara le sue cartucce migliori. Morgan's Boys di Martin Kochanski è forse il testo più interessante fra i lavori del Festival.

Si tratta del drammatico faccia a faccia tra una aggressiva marchetta e un maturo cliente che, dopo una serie di colpi di scena, si rivela essere il padre, sparito prima della nascita a causa della sua professione: anche lui prostituto e sfruttato da Morgan, lo stesso per cui ora lavora il figlio.

Impossibile il lieto fine dopo una tale agnizione e infatti il ragazzo ucciderà il genitore che ne ha portato allo scoperto la latente omosessualità, celata sotto l'alibi dei soldi.

But the Fringe, too, has kept its best ammunition for nightfall. Morgan's Boys, by Martin Kochanski, is perhaps the most interesting text of all in the Festival.

It hinges on the dramatic confrontation between an aggressive prostitute and his older client - who, after a series of coups de théâtre, is revealed as his father. Rejected before the birth because of his profession, he too was a prostitute and employed by Morgan, the very man for whom the son now works.

A happy ending is impossible after such a discovery, and finally the boy kills the father who has brought him to discover his own latent homosexuality, for so long safely hidden behind the alibi of doing it for money.

Mario Cervio Gualersi