One-man show ‘The Act’ recalls UK’s gay criminalisation era
By Ben Kelly
The Act
began life at fringe venue Ovalhouse, before transferring to the intimate Studio 2 at London’s Trafalgar Studios, where it’s currently playing a five-week run.
The creation of Matthew Baldwin and Thomas Hescott, it is Baldwin who commands this one-man show, narrating the plight of an average closeted gay man shortly before the decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1967. To call Baldwin multi-talented is an understatement, as he flits seamlessly between voices and characters; stand up emceeing and song; comedy and tragedy.
In its gay, post-war subject matter, The Act has echoes of Alexi Kaye Campbell’s The Pride, which ran at Trafalgar Studios last year; though as a solo narration, it’s in a league of its own. To watch Matthew Baldwin wax lyrical on so many different levels and themes makes the performance into a sort of gay recitation of T.S. Eliot’s The Wasteland.
It’s a 70-minute blast, with no interval, maintaining your undivided attention for just the right amount of time. As equal marriage dawns (and that doesn’t go ignored in the modern-day book-end scenes either), it’s humbling to be reminded of the gay men who existed in secrecy and fear, not so long ago.
4/5
The Act runs at Trafalgar Studios, London, until March 29. trafalgar-studios.co.uk/The-Act