It took a while to work out where each scene of Paul Harvard’s debut play GHBoy was supposed to be as the stripped-down stage hardly allowed for set changes, but once the confusion settled we could find ourselves either in Robert’s flat, Robert’s mum’s, clubs, various bedrooms, a therapist’s office or the Tate Gallery looking at Picasso’s The Three Dancers, a painting depicting the sex and violence in a love triangle, writes Michael Holland.
Robert sleeps around, takes lots of drugs, and worries that at 35 he is too old to be partying all the time, behaviour which might have begun after losing his father or because he liked the feeling that drugs and unfettered sex gave him – Even with the blackouts.
But then his young boyfriend, Sergi, proposes, which initially makes Robert feel better about himself but also makes him seek counselling for his wild ways. The therapist feels that Robert will find answers through art – ‘to unblock an unremembered experience’.
So far, so good.
Robert weans himself off the constant drug-taking as he tries to make a life with Sergi but the whispers about gay men dying of overdoses in the area evoke bad memories. More so when the police do not seem to be looking into it: ‘There’s no investigation because it’s gay men dying,’ he screams.
Then Robert finds his mother is not happy with the engagement as she feels that Sergi is just another boyfriend in the cycle of boyfriends. There is also mention of something that Robert is keeping to himself.
Inevitably, with the cheating, the lying, the secrets, and Robert always on edge with his personal demons, you are just waiting for the fall to come and everything that had become good in his life to turn bad.
There are no surprises in GHBoy. No dramatic twists at the end. It meanders somewhat and not all of my initial confusion is clarified. Are the people that turn up his imagination or are they real? Is Robert having conversations with Death or does he know the person responsible for the men dying?
At the end I cared about Robert and what happens to him but GHBoy gives us no answers to the many questions it has us asking. The play is as abstract as the Picasso at the heart of the story.
Jimmy Essex as Robert, however, is quite remarkable. He is on throughout the play, sometimes having simultaneous conversations with three others as life closes in on him, and it is his performance that makes GHBoy worth seeing.
GHBoy is now available to stream online via Vimeo on Demand. Filmed on 15 December 2020, the day before a lockdown cut short the production’s run at Charing Cross Theatre.
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/ghboy.
Tickets are £9.99 for a 48-hour rental period.
Images: Bettina John