BUFF, the critically acclaimed one-man play, is set to embark on a UK tour from April 2025. Written by rising star playwright Ben Fensome (Every Seven Years, New Wimbledon Theatre;Â Linck, Edinburgh Festival Fringe) and directed by Offie Award-nominated Scott Le Crass (Rose, West End;Â Jab, Finborough Theatre), this production addresses body image pressures and social media jealousy in one gay man’s journey to self-acceptance while navigating the world of online dating.
Presented by Emmerson and Ward Productions, BUFF follows a plus-sized, gay primary school teacher who decides to sublet his flat to a buff Instagram model after a nasty break-up from a six-year relationship. The protagonist, played by Jamal Franklin (Little Shop of Horrors, Crucible Theatre; Limp Wrist & The Iron Fist, Brixton House), swiftly discovers the world of online apps can be a cruel place for people like him. His humiliations and feelings towards his new flatmate form until he is ultimately forced to confront himself.
This funny yet poignant play centres upon a character whose story often isn’t told. Plus-sized characters tend to be used as comic relief sidekicks or supporting ensemble and are largely omitted from mainstream queer theatre. While BUFF’s central character is funny and endearing, he is complex, flawed, and insecure. Fensome’s liberating play faces challenges of the modern climate head-on, confronting self-acceptance in a social media-focused world, loneliness, and heartbreak. The play’s moving conclusion encourages audiences to hold themselves accountable before judging others too quickly.
Ben Fensome comments, “BUFF came out of a discussion Scott and I had about contemporary LGBTQ theatre and who usually gets featured in those stories, which actors get cast, what marketing usually looks like etc. We wanted to explore a character that we hadn’t seen be centred before and out of that discussion our character in BUFF was born. We’ve been really blown away by the response from LGBTQ audiences who have related to us how they haven’t really seen a character be centred like this particularly in queer theatre. I hope it is a call out for the community to look out for each other more, and the centre point of that is of course, the ability to love and accept ourselves.”
