Review: Faggamuffin + Exclusive Pictures

A PACKED THEATRE WITNESSED a one-off performance of John R. Gordon's sell-out play Faggamuffin on Saturday.

I was lucky enough to be in the audience.

The plot concerns the sudden arrival of Jamaican Cutty on a West London housing estate. He lands on Buju, the head of a drug crew he's met just once before a year previously. Cutty doesn't know anyone else in London, but fortunately for him, Buju possesses a keen sense of bredrinship - and motives of his own. But unfortunately for Cutty, Buju's girlfriend isn't too impressed with the new arrival - or her boyfriend's special bond with the Jamaican. And Buju's boys - Spin, Maxie and Gary - have their own suspicions too. What follows is a gripping narrative full of twists and turns, wit, revelation and a truly moving conclusion. Having read the novel, I already knew the story, but seeing it performed by a group of talented young actors at a breakneck pace was something else.

  It was thrilling, funny, moving, jaw-dropping and very, very sexy. Depictions of the many different, varied aspects of gay life are so often restricted to white, middle-class men. Faggamuffin opens a window onto the lives of two young, hyper-masculine black men in London, and that is a breathe of fresh air, and something at which Gordon (Noah's Arc) excels. Special mention must go to Nathan Clough and Michael Moulton, playing Cutty and Buju respectively. The sheer energy, range and depth of their performances was amazing. Clough's Jamaican accent also received a big thumbs up from my Jamaican friend Marley, to the extent that he wondered if the rest of the audience understood Cutty's lines.
  Faggamuffin was a huge success with that audience (an even mix of ethnicities, sexes and sexualities), with plenty of laughter and hushed, reverent silence in all the right places. It's hoped a full run will go ahead in the summer. Stay posted for news! One last thing. In the audience was David McAlmont. I kept staring at this guy in the bar beforehand thinking "I know him from somewhere." It was driving me nuts. It was only in the Q&A afterwards when he asked a couple of questions that I slowly started to realise that it was he. I even held the door open for him as we were leaving the theatre, and he said thank you. David McAlmont spoke to me! What a night!

View Nathan Clough in John R. Gordon's Souljah here.

Previously - Faggamuffin

Previously - Discographic: Diamonds Are Forever

(Thanks to John R. Gordon for the pictures, to whom these images belong and remain the property of. Please, no reproduction without permission!)