4.29°C Entering what has turned out to be, perhaps unintentionally, a mini LGBTQ+ festival in Colchester theatres, Nathaniel J Hall’s new play at the Mercury Theatre explores the toxicity in a same-sex relationship. Hall’s first play, First Time, was a beautiful and honest account of his contracting HIV the first time he made love. Here, Toxic does not refer to his status but to the shame we all carry with us when societal attitudes and homophobia threaten to crush us.
A couple meet, unnamed; they are The Playwright and The Performer, giving them a universality that perhaps allows members of the audience to recognise their own experiences in the couple’s story. It’s a tale of drug-fuelled partying, with both undetectable and on PrEP, and it offers many sound messages about status and safety. Yet it is a tale seen many times, using tropes I have encountered in other plays about chemsex, and ultimately feels a little flat.
It doesn’t help that, although its semi-autobiographical nature is to be appreciated, neither character is particularly likeable. Hall plays The Playwright with frenetic energy, and there are far too many dance and movement sequences taking the place of what could be more profound and telling dialogue. Josh Susan Enright, as The Performer, is a highly watchable presence, but his acting is a little flat. Mainly because we never see much tenderness between the two, the play doesn’t deliver the emotional impact it seems to aim for. The racism experienced by The Performer needs more depth and their backstory more clarity; these aspects of the production felt somewhat sidelined. However, what is to be applauded is Hall’s confirmation that writing a play about personal experience is not wholly cathartic; the challenges remain.
Created by Dibby Theatre and with a functional and effective set by Lu Herbert, the piece is staged very well, although I occasionally wanted the pumping soundtrack to be replaced by something more tender. But the play is about denial, not facing up to ourselves, and the danger of not opening oneself to the possibility of love. Although I am a little jaded by chemsex plays, the strength in this piece is the examination of self-toxicity.
Paul T. Davies
