One of the great strengths of Park Theatre is the encouragement and opportunity it provides for new writing: there is a many a show that having started out in a pub theatre or in Edinburgh then gets the chance to move up a gear or few with an outing at the black box studio theatre. The double bill of one-act plays by Paul Bradshaw is an excellent example of this process in action.
‘Telling it Straight’ was his first play and here is it is excellently reprised by the author himself in a semi-autobiographical role with Buck Braithwaite providing a hugely skilful set of differentiated portraits of three straight men for whom the main protagonist falls. This is a witty, but often poignantly shrewd study, of how and why gay men continuously fall for men who are fundamentally straight or implausibly and unhelpfully ‘questioning.’ The dialogue is tight, tart and touching, with plenty of breaches of the fourth wall, and nifty integration of mobile phone conversations with a female friend, voiced by Jade Anouka. The play is an excellent example of an important issue given genuine independent dramatic life. I have seen a few too many shows recently which might as well have been a lecture rather than a drama; but this one is a super case-study of how to get the balance right.
‘Aggy’, after the interval, is a new offering, but very different in tone and content. Here we have a drama that is both inward and outward-looking, a study of relationship but also with a lot to say about identity, racial and sexual politics in the public square. It begins as Mahlik (Jean-Luke Worrell) moves in with partner Lawrence (Matthew Jordan). What begins as comic teething squabbles turns darker as Lawrence’s work as an experimental artist dries up and Mahlik suggests half-in-jest that he start questioning his gender identity as a way of leveraging his brand. This quickly takes us into troubling territory with the potential to erode their relationship and to raise important questions about where the boundaries should lie between the creative and the personal, and where in a social-media age image manipulation should begin and end. The actors have some fine moments here, even though some of the important scenes risk melodrama, because they lack time to build nuance and momentum.
This is one of the occasions where you have to take time out to give special praise to the creative team. In the first play all is minimalism – the focus is on the actors with the set apparently just a few drab panels and props. All is transformed after the interval where the same set by Damien Stanton ramps up into full-on, pulsating psychedelic life. One panel becomes a window in the flat alternating with a screen shot of the contributions of the rival influencer, Rex (Jack Gittins). Then the sound and light designs of Cheng Keng and Eamonn O’Dwyer credibly take us outdoors to a disco scene and other locations – short, snappy scenes where the setting is economically suggested with entire conviction. In recent months I have rarely seen so much transformed in so small a space so well.
Overall, this is a hugely impressive evening, but with one reservation. There are so many themes jostling for attention in ‘Aggy’ that I felt the play was really bursting at the seams of a single act. While the fit between form and content was just right in the first play, here there is just too much happening that remains undercooked or overplayed. There is a very powerful full-length play waiting to be revealed here which will pack an even bigger punch than this highly creditable first iteration.
Writer: Paul Bradshaw
Directors: Paul Bradshaw & Imogen Frances
Cast: Jade Anouka, Paul Bradshaw, Buck Braithwaite, Jack Gittins, Matthew Jordan, Jean-Luke Worrell
Until 28 March 2026
70 mins each play
Photo Credit: Craig Fuller