Cruising, Clubbing, Fucking at Soho Theatre is meant to coincide with the World Pride Day celebrations; although of course if it had been an
official part of this year's Pride, it would most probably have been cancelled, like most of the rest of the events. Instead its brief run at Soho Theatre Upstairs (with a short tour to follow) has gone ahead, ending today. As with
Torch Song Trilogy, this is another show that looks at a specifically pre-AIDS gay lifestyle in New York, although unlike that show this was only conceived and created this year, so as the subtitle -
an elegy - suggests, it's a mournful look back at a hedonistic world that no longer exists. Specifically from the point of view of someone too young to have experienced it himself: Co-deviser and choreographer Joseph Mercier wishes he could have been around in 1978 New York to experience it, and instead has conducted interviews with men who were there. These, along with the writing of people like Derek Jarman, form the basis of his dance piece, which Mercier performs with his co-deviser Sebastian Langueneur.
