David Paisley on jockstraps, sobriety, & bringing party’n’play drama to the stage
Jock Night, written and directed by Adam Zane, was first performed in Manchester by fringe theatre company, Hive North.Zane has spent the last 20 years creating verbatim theater, but this is his first full-length non-verbatim work.
However, although the characters may be fictional, the story is very much rooted in the reality of a particular gay subculture.Jock Night focuses on five men who meet, f*ck and fall in love in the chemsex scene.
Nights out at a fetish club—Jock—are followed by all-night sessions of group sex, pill-popping and powder snorting. The play doesn’t hold back in portraying what goes on: characters wander around in jockstraps, canoodle beneath the bed sheets, and pass around cups of carefully measured GHB.The Olympic medal-winning diver is now appearing on the London stage.The subject matter may be dark, but the show bounces along thanks to generous helpings of savage wit.
An appreciation of the Manchester-set British soap opera Coronation Street will undoubtedly help when it comes to understanding some of the jokes.
