“My Night with Reg” – a play by Kevin Elyot

My Night with Reg a play by Kevin Elyot

The Donmar Warehouse – until 27^th September 2014 www.donmarwarehouse.com

Alcohol flows and fags are chain smoked while David Bowie’s Starman belts out, hitting everyone in the audience. The scene is set for the revival of Kevin Elyot’s award-winning 1994 comedy, My Night with Reg, which charts the lives and loves of six gay men and what a night it turns out to be.

It’s 1985 and Guy – or Gertie as he is referred to – brilliantly played by Jonathan Broadbent is hosting a flat warming party. Guy has always held a candle to old university friend, John (Julian Ovenden – think Hugh Grant but better) yet to no avail. However Guy’s excitement is uncontainable when John arrives early for the party. What ensues is a clever and extremely witty, although sometimes sad, portrayal of manners and relationships. The themes of true love – both actual and yearning, friendship, promiscuity and fear are all explored. Fear occurs because 1985 represents the AIDS shock but, very cleverly, the play never mentions the affliction by name. Instead Elyot ensures that laughter surpasses tears with his hilarious dialogue. There are so many memorable lines – “he likes the sound of his own vice” spoken by the dapper Daniel (Geoffrey Streatfeild) and “I’d rather be fancied than liked” from a lovelorn Guy – are two that stuck with me. The dialogue had shades of Woody Allen and echoed his sharp precision when observing human relationships.

If it is Elyot’s poignant writing that holds the play then it is definitely the tremendous acting that brings it to life. All six actors – from a mincing Jonathan Broadbent to the young Northern decorator, Lewis Reeves, who lovingly brings a bottle of Blue Nun to one of the events, were spot on. However there’s a wonderful scene towards the end between John and Daniel (Julian Ovenden and Geoffrey Streatfeild), fittingly accompanied by David Bowie, where the acting just hits another level. Ovenden and Streatfeild made me laugh and made me cry but they really made my night.