At the Theatre_Why that Cast?

Last night I walked home from the Young Vic after watching seven hours of Matthew Lopez's The Inheritance. I would have normally crossed the river, gone past China Town through Soho and taken the tube back to my Bangoli neighbourhood in Mile End, but last night I needed some fresh air and some space to think about what I had just seen, so I walked.

The writing had been interesting to experience: a sort of narrative -meets drama -meets poetry that suited the plot well and allowed a story-telling mode to emerge throughout the play and give texture to this very wordy piece. The themes were powerful, and engaging, and relevant, especially for a poof like me, living the gay life of a mega-polis like London and embracing a flourishing social life of beer, parties and discreet sex in the weekends whilst dealing with an unresposive flatmate, STDs, my precarious finance and attempting a career as a full-time actor during the week.

Being a batti boy in the 80’s in New York mustn’t have felt very different from being a naughty fairy in London today. The LGTBQI+ community –not always with such a politically correct label- has consistently been inclusive, embracing, proud and fabulous. The good sheep and the bad, the immigrants, the gender benders, the overdressed, the overweighed, the uncontrolled, the slutty and the effeminate have had a voice for themselves and their cause.

I don`t think the queer scene in New York and London nowadays has changed much in this respect. Yes, we now have PrEP, Brexit, Uber and the dating apps, but overall mega-polis remain melting pots for provincial faggots and romantic nellies to escape to, and come out, and feel safe, and speak out,  and meet other fellow pansies with similar concerns and come together to finally feel legitimized, through their words, their actions, and the work they do.This is my experience, at least, and the case of most of the gays who I’ve met here.

So as I crossed Limehouse, and before reaching home I thought one last time about the play and asked myself why had they chosen a cast of predominantly white, young-aspirational, middle-upper class jocks? As a London based queer transatlantic middle aged migrant I felt excluded from this beautiful trans-generational and multicultural banquet both as an actor and as a homosexual man.