Theatre review: Four Play

The King's Head's new venue may be so deep down in the ground that you occasionally spot Peter Cushing down there telling a prehistoric bird it can't mesmerise him because he's British, but it seems to be able to attract decent casts to make the trek regardless, including a number of recent West End musical stars for its revival of Jake Brunger's Four Play. Rafe (Lewis Cornay) and Pete (Zheng Xi Yong) have been together for seven and a half years, and have only ever slept with each other. They're outwardly the picture of domestic bliss, but lately Pete in particular has been wondering if they're missing something. They hatch a plan to approach a mutual acquaintance they both fancy, not for a threesome but to each arrange a night with him, catering to the different fantasies they harbour about him.

They pick Michael (Daniel Bravo,) because they know him well enough to trust, but not so well that it might make an established friendship weird; also because it's common knowledge he's in an open relationship.

But his partner Andy (Jo Foster) is a long-standing friend of the couple's, so their hopes of keeping the personal out of the deal are naïve at best. Although they ask him not to, Michael tells Andy about the arrangement as it breaks one of their fundamental rules about not fooling aims with anyone they both know. With everyone fully informed and consenting, nothing could possibly go wrong.

The myriad inevitable ways it does go wrong is of course where the story lies, but I remembered Brunger's play as one the comes out of the gates strong with its comedy and Jack Sain's production doesn't disappoint: The opening scene sees Rafe ambush Michael at the gym with his proposition, a frantic information dump mixed with a lot of social awkwardness and assurances that while there might be a risk of bumping into him in Sainsbury's afterwards, you'd never catch him at Asda.

The light touch helps the cast quickly get you invested in the characters and their relationships, meaning the audience is kept interested when things get messy and complicated later on - but even when things look like they might get bleak for the couples there's still a lot of laughs. Peiyao Wang's designs are... interesting, in both senses: I loved the network of copper pipers that makes up the set even if it isn't immediately apparent what plumbing has to do with the story; the costumes can be a bit distracting though, with Rafe's dinner party attire looking more like pyjamas than when he's actually in his pyjamas. Meanwhile are Michael's three-quarter length bell bottoms really what The Youth are wearing these days? Crikey.

Needless to say this cast can make pretty much anything look good on them, and the visuals don't overpower the play: Gay theatre often grapples with whether same-sex relationships should look like conventional straight ones or make up their own rules where sex is concerned, and Four Play doesn't have any yes or no answers to give; it does, though, strongly recommend making sure everyone's on the same page.

Four Play by Jake Brunger is booking until the 17th of August at the King's Head Theatre.

Running time: 1 hour 25 minutes straight through.

Photo credit: Jack Sain.