A play called Cock

Finally some proper theatre: Talk is Free’s revival of Mike Bartlett’s 2009 Cock, a comedy of sexual orientation, you can call it, playing in a studio at the Carlaw Industrial Complex until May 2. And by ‘proper theatre’ I mean taking you out of your comfort zone, unpredictable, embodied and not the mini-me of television. (No Will and Grace wannabe, this piece.)

The bare minimum set (Kathleen Black) in Dylan Trowbridge’s staging serves a purpose. Most of the action takes place at the upscale digs of a gay couple, but we are given the opposite: concrete, bare benches, glaring lamps, and everyone clad in gray and black. Except, that is, in the scene of the final conflict, when a female body, shown in fullness of its difference, disturbs the peace. As willing guests at a dinner party gone bad, thirty audience members observe the proceedings, and each other’s reactions.