Depending on your level of maturity, you may be either attracted to — or wary of — the title of Mike Bartlett’s newest play, Cock, which is playing at Performance Works on Granville Island. While your mind might go straight to images of that kind of cock, the mise-en-scène for Rumble Theatre’s production is reminiscent of a brutal Elizabethan cock-fighting ring.
John has been in a relationship with his extrovert boyfriend when, following an argument and breakup, he sleeps with with a woman with whom he subsequently falls in love with. Cock follows the conflicting emotions and guilt John feels between the two partners – both of whom are willing to fight to keep him. As tension and pressure mounts, a dinner with both parties is arranged in an attempt to force John to make a decision.
The play is essentially a question to John: Who is he? Or, perhaps, what is he? Less about the topic of bisexuality and more focused on the question of John’s identity, Cock is hilariously witty and smart. Bartlett’s intelligent script is made stronger only by the team of four talented actors.
John (Nadeem Phillip) is the only character to be given a name. He is the most dithering and pathetic —but endearingly so — of the four. M (Shawn MacDonald), John's broker partner, is passionate, wild and desperately in love, while W (Donna Soares) is strong-willed, but tender. These characters and M's father (Duncan Fraser) all know what and who they are.
For a play with a perhaps off-putting title, Cock is surprisingly PG. Yes, sex happens. It’s very passionate, but at no point do clothes come off. There is very little man-to-man or man-to-woman contact, yet the tension and passion in the scenes are electrifying.
As if to backhand the conventions of a traditional script, Artistic Director Stephen Drover, a UBC MFA alumnus, uses nothing in the way of scenery, props or mime. The focus is only on the actors with scenes punctuated by eerie and somewhat piercing sounds set to cut out potentially uncomfortable and graphic dialogue. When the next scene starts, the audience is all too aware of what’s been cut.
Philip is mesmerizing as the “hero” of the play, yet his character’s internal weaknesses are infuriating at times. The end of the play is perhaps a cop-out on Bartlett’s part and the climactic crux is maybe too drawn out for the 90 minutes of theatre.
But this show is something special. There are theatrical conventions in the realism of the sometimes-mundane script, but Drover’s direction sustains the intensity and candid passion in every snippet scene. I definitely recommended — it blew me away.
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