Theatre review: 46 Beacon

A gentle - perhaps too gentle - coming out story parks up at the smaller Trafalgar Studio for a month, Bill Rosenfield's 46 Beacon looking back at gay life in early 1970s America through rose-tinted glasses. Or possibly rose-tinted velour. Robert (Jay Taylor) is an English actor approaching middle age, who's taken a job in a Boston theatre to take a break from problems at home. Alan (Oliver Coopersmith) is a teenager with a part-time job at the theatre, and Robert has spotted and taken an interest in him, noticing that Alan is interested too. After one performance he invites him back to his small flat where he gently seduces him. And yes, although it's made clear Alan wants to be seduced but is mostly just reticent because of nerves about his first time and admitting his sexuality to himself, there is a bit of a creepy undertone to the age gap (though Robert doesn't realise at first just how big the gap is. The age gap, not his anus.)

Admittedly the creepiness might be largely down to the fact that, after a briefFULL FRONTAL MALE NUDITY ALERT!at the start of the play Taylor changes into a BURGUNDY VELOUR LOUNGE SUIT and I know it's set in the seventies but that's still no excuse for offending the eyeballs to such an extent.

Taylor and Coopersmith do manage to make the odd couple and their mutual attraction seem real though, making the whole evening a lot more likeable as they reveal more about what makes them who they are. But maybe it could have done with that bit of extra edge though, as it's too heavily filtered through romanticised memory. It opens and closes with narration from the present day, and apart from a brief mention in the intro that this is set before the days of AIDS, Alan's closing memories of how this was the beginning of a happier new life for him breezily gloss over the fact that he would have been in the thick of it a decade later, and if not sick himself would have certainly lost a lot of friends.

Of course not every play has to have a heart of darkness and Alexander Lass' production and his actors find the strengths in Rosenfield's writing; Coopersmith should be able to play the part in his sleep of course as it's two out of three in his Highly Specific Typecasting (gay and schoolboy; Jewish isn't specified although it's not ruled out either.) It's one of those plays that entertains enough while it's on, but the shying away from any darker side contributes to it being pretty easy to leave behind once it's over as well.

46 Beacon by Bill Rosenfield is booking until the 29th of April at Trafalgar Studio 2.

Running time: 1 hour 20 minutes straight through.

Photo credit: Pete Le May.