5 Stars
Andrew Doherty hits the mark once more after his successful run with Gay Witch Sex Cult. I was unsure what to expect when I entered the Pleasance Dome 10 for my first Fringe show of the year. The title is wilfully misleading: Sad Gay AIDS Play had the audience overcome with laughter from the first beat.
The show starts with an introduction which immediately places it in the realm of meta-theatre. Doherty introduces the main character of his play AIDS Actually – Harry Manlove – and tells the audience he is going to show them five scenes from this play he has written with funding ‘generously’ provided by ACE (Arts Council England). This whole premise is false; it is immediately clear the purpose of the show is to poke some fun at the institution: they keep stopping the show, even ‘killing’ Andrew’s parents, to make his personal story sadder. The purpose is clear: it’s a satire on how the art world exploits tragic personal stories and historical events – the AIDS crisis – for gain and audience interest/sympathy. There is a sad – but hilariously portrayed – truth behind all of this: to get the fictitious funding, Doherty had to compromise on his original idea – Six Wives of Housewife – because, as a gay man, he was expected to write about AIDS (even though the tragedy is not personally familiar to him).
The audience laughs partly because of the well-written jokes and the incredible deadpan delivery, but also because they recognised the truth in all of this. As media consumers, we see it time and time again, also in the misrepresentation of the North by mainly South-East-based institutions. Perhaps one of the most successful parts of the show was when Doherty broke away from the main plot to portray a young North-Eastern boy being beaten by his drunken father.
It’s a one-man show that keeps you entertained for its entire duration, funny, witty, and eye-opening. I am deliberately picky when choosing Fringe shows and this is one of those that made me want to enjoy more of the festival.
Andrew Doherty, Sad Gay AIDS Play, 10 Dome (Pleasance), 30th July to 24th August, 20:30
Tickets here
