Theatre review: BLACK SUPERHERO

A rescheduled trip to a show I was meant to see a couple of weeks ago: Actor Danny Lee Wynter was also starring in his playwrighting debut BLACK SUPERHERO, but had to drop out mid-run for personal reasons, leading to a week of cancelled performances. Lewis Brown, who's performing with script in hand but rarely needing to consult it at this point, has replaced him as David, a black, gay actor whose career isn't exactly going the way he planned: He lives with his younger sister Syd (Rochenda Sandall) and works with her as the entertainment at children's parties. His avoidance of drink and drugs, and references to his therapy sessions, hint at some past trauma that's holding him back, but he blames his career problems firmly on not being attractive or masculine enough: His very buff friend Raheem (Eloka Ivo) is also black and gay, but he's doing well enough to be accepted on a celebrity-only dating app.

Theatre review: Undetectable

Tom Wright's Undetectable opens with a pretty unorthodox gay relationship: Personal trainer and Instagram influencer Lex (Freddie Hogan) has been going out with former client and primary school teacher Bradley (Lewis Brown) for three months but they haven't had sex, or indeed done anything more than kiss, yet. This is on Bradley's instigation that they should try an old-fashioned kind of courtship, and although they've shared a bed they've never even seen each other naked in person (although Lex has sent a few dick pics.) They've not quite got to the point of meeting each other's families yet but the next best thing is Lex introducing Bradley to his friends, after which they decide that tonight's the night to make their relationship physical. Except neither of them has a condom, which leads to an angsty conversation about HIV.