The pain and glory of love
Image: Reuben Solomon and Eddie O’Leary in HOMOS, OR EVERYONE IN AMERICA. Photo: Chris Lundie
Jordan Seavey’s viscerally honest, sexually charged, deeply emotional play, Homos, Or Everyone In America has been leaving an imprint on critics and audiences ever since it debuted in New York in 2016. Now finally, thanks to New Theatre and Mardi Gras +, Australian audiences can find out what the fuss is about and what that odd title means.
Set in New York on a timeline that jumps back and forth between 2006 and 2011, Homos, Or Everyone In America takes a gay relationship and puts it under the microscope where a complex microcosm of love, sex and politics is revealed.
In this roughly 100 minute, one-act play, the two protagonists, known only at The Writer and The Academic, try to construct a relationship from an inauspicious, alcohol-infused bar hook-up. What they discover is that love doesn’t exist inside a bubble — there’s still all the other parts of life to contend with.
The story is told in non-chronological fragments that feel disconnected at first, but eventually come together to reveal the whole picture. However, Seavey’s play isn’t really about the big picture, it’s about the pieces, the individual moments, the many mischievous devils in the details.
Seavey writes with extraordinary and very surprising candour. This is not a play for pearl-clutchers. It is raw and real, though in that, not necessarily morbid. In fact, it is frequently laugh-out-loud hilarious.
Homos, Or Everyone In America explores themes of monogamy and sexual freedom, personal and social politics, and the fragility that makes all experiences of love ultimately the same, gay, straight or other.
New Theatre has proven time and again that it is unafraid to produce works that are edgy, challenging, and don’t pander to the comfort of a conservative audience. It takes risks and its audiences reap the rewards.
Homos, Or Everyone In America features Axel Berecry, Sonya Kerr, Eddie O’Leary and Reuben Solomon, and is directed by Alex Kendall Robson.
Until Mar 9
New Theatre, 542 King St, Newtown
