Theatre review: No Sweat

A quick look at a short but sharp show that aims to shine a light on the disproportionate levels of LGBTQ+ homelessness that's often unnoticed due to the unexpected shelter people find: Writer/director Vicky Moran's semi-verbatim piece No Sweat is set in a gay sauna, whose very nature as a place to disappear in for unspecified periods of time, where drugs and casual sex are the norm, makes it easy to fall through the cracks - possibly on purpose. Tristan (Denholm Spurr) is university educated and sounds posh so generally comes across as well-off, but his middle-class Surrey parents still turned him away when he came out. He treats the sauna as somewhere to rest up, get a shower and watch some TV, but mostly finds shelter through Grindr hookups who also give him breakfast the next morning.

Alf (James Haymer,) whose life is essentially a few years further down the same path, points out to him that there's a word for what he's doing and he might as well start charging more than just breakfast.

No Sweat isn't so much a narrative as a fairly loose collection of experiences of the various kinds of gay men who've been driven to homelessness - often not acknowledging that that's their real situation. And it is very specifically gay men we're talking about here despite the theme - reinforced in interviews from Moran's research that are played between scenes - being LGBTQ+ homelessness in general. Not necessarily a bad thing to have a focus, although Moran still doesn't quite find a balance between the verbatim element and the narrative she's built from it.

Or perhaps the feeling of it being unfocused comes from one plot strand overshadowing the rest - sauna employee Charlie (Manish Gandhi) is a refugee seeking sanctuary from death threats in his native Pakistan, and the reenactment of his bleak interviews with the Home Office includes an incredibly disturbing description of what his parents considered gay conversion therapy. It's a powerfully horrific moment, so much so the play never quite recovers from it. Still, the play's intentions are admirable and for the most part it's a gently sad exposé of a largely hidden epidemic.

No Sweat by Vicky Moran is booking until the 29th of February at Pleasance Islington's Downstairs Theatre.

Running time: 1 hour 15 minutes straight through.

Photo credit: Ali Wright.