F**king Men at the Arts Theatre

‘This is America. It still matters what you do with your dick.’

Such is the mantra of F**king Men, currently playing at the Arts Theatre in Covent Garden. In truth, F**king Men is a far better play than its lurid and sensationalist title implies.

Though it may never find its way onto the GCSE English syllabus – I can only imagine what my fuddy English teacher would have thought – the play is a funny, stark and, at times, a touching examination of the part-hidden world of New York’s gay community.

It would be easy, given the salacious subject matter, for the play to descend into trite, ham-fisted exhibitionism. Thankfully it doesn’t.

The story follows a succession of gay couples and strangers on their quest for sex, love and happiness in modern America. Joe Pietro’s script is at times a harsh study of what sex is and what it can be (and what it can’t) for gay men. It is tribute to Pietro’s clever sense of restraint that F**king Men avoids becoming a crass pastiche.

Nevertheless, no punches are pulled and this is not for the easily offended. The audience are engulfed by sex. We see characters before sex, after sex, discussing sex, begging for sex, negotiating the financial terms of sex. We even see one character wiping away the ‘aftermath’ of sex from his mouth.

There is a very palpable feeling that we the audience are being subsumed into another world, a world in which the terms of love, lust and sexual fulfilment are quite unlike anything we may have experienced before. At times it feels as if we are witness to something we shouldn’t be; that we have accidently stumbled down the wrong alley, the wrong corridor, and are now seeing too much.

Crucially, however, we never see the act of sex itself. By covering up the act of love-making, the play heightens and intensifies the feeling of social taboo, of debauchery. Thanks in part to the Arts Theatre’s small capacity and intimate atmosphere there is an almost claustrophobic feel to each sexual encounter.

Yet at other times, there is a charming and reassuring familiarity in the anxieties and frustrations that affect each individual in their search for happiness.

F**king Men is at times also quite hilarious. Gay New Yorkers really know how to deliver a one-liner and there are more than enough here to balance the more sombre themes. It’s really rather good. Both shocking and sweet, it is worth an evening of any Londoner’s time.

F**king Men is showing 7.30pm, Tuesday to Saturday at:

Arts Theatre
6-7 Great Newport Street
Covent Garden
WC2H 7JB

Tel: 020 7836 8547

www.artstheatrewestend.com
www.fuckingmen.co.uk

Ticket price £17.50