‘Kinks? They don’t define my characters’: Meet the writer changing how older gay men’s sex lives are portrayed on stage

Words: Ian Hallard; pictures: David Ames, Matt Lapinskas, and Jake Maskall in Horse-Play (all photos taken by Danny Kaan)

“I think it needs to be tighter,” says the muscly man in the black Lycra bodystocking standing in front of me. Another actor nods in agreement, and the designer confirms that the costume will indeed be taken away for adjustments.
 
I’m sitting in a stiflingly hot rehearsal room. Behind my Lycra-clad friend (who happens to be EastEnders and Hollyoaks hunk Matt Lapinskas) is an array of shelves stacked with dildos, handcuffs, and nipple clamps: our Stage Management team have been working full out to equip the room with all the accoutrements of a slightly down market, Berkshire sex dungeon.
 
I’ve been in many rehearsal rooms over the years, but this is a new experience for me. For the first time I’m here not as an actor, but as the writer. It’s thrilling, somewhat nerve-wracking, and rather overwhelming that everything I can see in front of me – from riding crops to gas masks to the aforementioned Lycra-clad soap star are all here because, two years ago, during that bizarre first lockdown of Spring 2020, I decided to write a play.

David Ames and Jake Maskall

It wasn’t my first attempt – that had happened the previous year when I wrote The Way Old Friends Do, a comedy about the world’s first drag ABBA tribute band. Then, when COVID intervened to delay – although thankfully not derail – plans to stage it, another idea came to me. Nobody knew what audiences would want to see in a world recovering from a global pandemic, but I suspected we’d all need a good laugh. So, a comedy then. And comedy very easily springs from a group of characters trapped together: either literally in a sitcom like Porridge or figuratively in Steptoe and Son or Fawlty Towers. (I appreciate I’m showing my age by referencing TV shows from the 60s and 70s…)
 
I was also interested in exploring how older gay men’s sexualities are depicted on stage. A gay production I’d seen a few years ago had stuck with me. In amongst the cast of twenty-somethings, the solitary middle-aged character was very much the villain of the piece. On top of that, one of the short-hands for his wickedness was that he had unconventional sexual tastes: bondage, a bit of spanking, that sort of thing. Not for the first time, the older gay character was predatory, creepy and sleazy. I thought it might be nice to help redress the balance: to write something about characters whose kinks did not define them, and which certainly didn’t automatically make them bad people!

David Ames and Matt Lapinskas

It’s been a fascinating and eye-opening experience. I’ve learned a lot, and as one character in the play says: “I reckon over the centuries, people have done more harm by suppressing their urges, than if they just went ahead and did what made them happy”. Who cares what turns people on as long as it’s all consensual, after all? The liberation of the internet has given so many people the freedom to be more open about their kinks: from BDSM to fetish, to a whole plethora of role-play scenarios: including, for instance, superheroes. (Hence Matt’s costume).
 
However, Horse-Play (for that is indeed the play’s title, inspired by the fact that the main superhero in it is named The Stallion, and by the shenanigans that the characters get up to, and the chaos that ensues) isn’t po-faced or preachy. It takes a look at the world of role-play and sex dungeons, but it’s never mocking or judgmental. Nevertheless, first and foremost it is a comedy. I think even the most committed role-player would have to admit that, to quote another line from the play, “sex is pretty silly when you think about it…”

 
Matt Lapinskas

But it’s also a love story, showing how far the central characters (played by the brilliant David Ames and Jake Maskall) will go in order to keep their relationship fresh and to keep each other happy. I’m really proud of it, and thanks to our talented cast, I still find myself laughing as I watch. That probably sounds self-indulgent given I wrote the thing, but when you’re trying to encourage audiences to return to the theatre in these uncertain times, there’s no room for modesty!

Stephanie Siadatan, David Ames, and Jake Maskall 

So, I hope people will come and find out what it’s all about for themselves. ‘A gay couple hire a gorgeous male escort for an evening in a sex dungeon, and then they all get locked in for twenty-four hours’ is the pitch, and the characters certainly have ‘the ride of their lives’. I really hope audiences will too.

Running Tues 30 Aug-Sat 24 Sept 2022. For more information, visit RiverStudios.co.uk.