When Mike Bartlett’s Cock first opened on the West End in 2022, it quickly became highly acclaimed. Four years on, Canada’s Talk Is Free Theatre Company have brought Cock back to London for a limited run at the COLAB Theatre in Southwark. This ultra-intimate version is breathless, frenetic and disorienting, but that is exactly what is needed for a play like this.
With Cock, Bartlett explores what happens when a man who has always publicly identified as gay falls in love with a woman. John, played by Aidan deSalaiz, has been in a long-term relationship with M (Michael Torontow) for seven years. While M is bold, brash and harsh with his words, John is the softer figure whose existence could be easily eclipsed by M’s.
This fact makes the first thirty minutes of the play somewhat confusing. The dialogue ping-pongs between M and John at lightning speed, and while it is simple enough to grasp the characters’ desires, John wants to leave, kind of, and M wants him to stay, it is hard to get a sense of direction. Only later does it become clear that this is deliberate.
W (Tess Benger) arrives as the antidote to M. She is unravelled and emotional, giving space for John to explore more of his identity. As he does, the play itself expands and slows down. This is short-lived, as pressures begin to mount on John again, from W to choose family life, and from M and his father F (Kevin Bundy) to choose his ex-boyfriend, seemingly because doing otherwise would be betraying his ‘true identity.’ It is hard to justify John’s commitment to helplessness, but this version of Cock pulls the audience in all the same directions as John’s mindset. It forces every audience member to face the unfairness of the choice being asked of him, as well as rendering the audience as frozen and unable to speak their mind as John.
Trowbridge wrung every bit of emotion and electricity from Cock’s script so that it could come alive on stage. Even the casting choices help realise this. Both deSalaiz and Torontow are great in their respective roles. They bring complexity to John and M, allowing the audience to simultaneously feel frustration and sympathy. Bundy brought a farcical brilliance to the play as F, the classic dad who loves his gay son but still has not completely updated his mindset yet. Tess Benger was another highlight in the play, hilarious and dorky both in her dialogue and in her physicality, while also bringing enough desperation to the character to understand how W’s impact on John could negatively influence his behaviour.
While some elements, such as having the actors work the lighting and what those choices meant, could have been conveyed more clearly, Talk Is Free’s production of Cock at COLAB succeeds overall. The message comes through fluently. The cast, how they use the space, the fast-paced script and the intimacy of the theatre all seem to invite the audience into the confusion and challenge their perspectives on sexuality.
Listings and ticket information can be found here
