Venus As A Boy…

I went to Soho Theatre last night to see their latest show Venus As A Boy, a touring production by the studio of the NTS (National Theatre of Scotland).

I’ve seen a few shows by the NTS at Soho and I’d really liked their work so I had high hopes for this too. Based on a novel by Luke Sutherland and adapted by actor Tam Dean Burn, it tells the ‘true’ story of a young boy from Orkney and his bizarre and at times moving journey of sexual awakening from his home island via Glasgow and finally London, where he ends trapped as a transsexual prostitute until his death.

In many ways it’s a bit of a bizarre piece. It was introduced as a monument-cum-epitaph to its ‘real-life’ central character and it was also a piece of theatre that touched on the borders of performance art. But was it any good?

Well yes and no. It was essentially a one-man show with Tam Dean Burn playing the lead role of the boy-turned prostitute, nicknamed Cupid, and about 10 other characters too and his performance was quite compelling. It was obviously a project he’d crafted with much love and his compassion for all the roles he played really shone through.

Author Sutherland was also on stage to provide accompanying music and this was quite haunting and really added to the atmosphere and the intimacy of the evening. The staging was quite Spartan and the use of props and costumes was inventive too.

But the story had a few too many plot holes (a fleeing Cupid’s pimp magically turning up in Orkney to bring him back to London), a few too many bizarre coincidences (a raped skinhead managing to again find his attacker Cupid in the whole of London within eight hours of their first meeting) and some unconvincing emotional switches (Cupid betraying the transsexual prostitute he loves in a fit of jealousy).

Perhaps these issues are better explained in the book but even as a piece of gritty magical realism they stretched the credibility of the tale a bit too much. That said it’s an interesting and at times compelling piece and the performance of Tam Dean Burn was worth the admission price alone.

It’s a play that certainly deserves to find its audience in London. I just don’t think I was it, even though it’s more creative and heartfelt than most of the schlock currently on stages in the capital.