WILD FRUIT

A new comedy by Robert Farrar, directed by Phil Setren

Oval House Theatre, June 2006

Jeremy Kingston, theatre critic, The Times, writes:

"Robert Farrar's witty, serious comedy follows the manoevres of four gay men, gathering in a Brighton flat in hopes of an orgy, for whom, of course, nothing turns out quite as intended. The would-be artist, the won't-be actor, the quirky S/M couple, are given memorably detailed personalities - the artist never at a loss for crisp, Coward-like quips; the actor unwittingly disclosing child-like instability; the American top proving useless in a crisis. The dinky trolley-dolly is Farrar's most original creation, demanding to be submissive, mouthing seemingly vacuous political notions but emerging as the one with the decent social conscience while continuing to be, also, endearingly absurd..
Farrar can switch the mood in a sentence from comic to poignant, and in the next sentence switch it back. The twists of his plot, though unforeseeable, become inevitable in retrospect so that his group portrait imparts a sense of real, felt life. An altogether admirable work."

Set Designer Richard Evans. Costume Designer Fabrice Serafino. Lighting Designer Phil Spencer Hunter. Cast: Robert Forknall, Jonathan Hooley, Alberto Lvpo, Tai Shan Ling, Peter Stenson

“Don’t you sometimes wish all of life could be an endless night of drugs and alcohol and submissive young men in jockstraps?”

You are invited back to Cary and Ken’s state-of-the-art bohemian Brighton hovel. It’s 3am and their lives are going nowhere, but some very special company is expected...

Following the sell-out success of their Lovers From Hell at Oval House last year, Farrar and Setren's divinely decadent drawing-room comedy asks what happens to gay slackers when the party’s over?

"4 stars! A sizzling hot-plate of hang-ups [and] denials... brought to lethal boiling point by Phil Setren's tight, unrelenting direction, which never backs down an inch! Wild Fruit beautifully harvests its barely functional blooms!" - QX

"[Robert] Forknall relishes the pithy dialogue and his delivery and timing are superb...Beneath this freak show of leather bears, slaves and masters, is a brittle comedy of manners, or rather, ill-manners..." - The Stage

"Lots of witty one-liners." - The Pink Paper

"All of the actors - particularly Jonathan Hooley as Ken - are to be commended..." - Time Out

Praise for Lovers From Hell:

“Scores a comic hit” – Nicholas de Jongh, Evening Standard Metro Life
“Grotesquely delightful” – Theatreworld Internet Magazine
“Like John Inman doing Pinter” – Time Out

Tuesdays to Saturday at 7.45pm, 7th - 24th June 2006. Tickets £12/£6. Book online at ovalhouse.com

After-show audience discussion Friday 9th, hosted by Tim Teeman of The Times.

Funded by Arts Council England

(Photos on this page by Sean Patterson)