I wanted to start with a description of how the audience at the Hope Theatre was arranged in a horseshoe shape allowing a thrust acting space (as there is no raised stage). But the theatre is very small and with a double bed taking over almost all of the acting space it felt like we all were crumpled into someone’s bedroom. That is not to discourage visitors: 46 Beacon is the address of a hotel room in Boston, in 1970.
This hotel room is inhabited by Robert, an actor in his mid-thirties (or older?). Robert is British, from Leeds, on an ‘exile’ in America after splitting from his boyfriend.
The show starts with Robert’s direct address to the audience: it is a story of one meeting that took place at 46 Beacon. We are introduced to what’s there: a bed, a bedside table, a record player, ‘not much, but just just enough’. It’s hard to disagree – we surround the bed, can see all there is. Perhaps all there is – is enough for the play to unveil.
Robert invited to his hotel room a much younger man, a boy almost – Alan, who works backstage at Robert’s theatre. It is the night of a seduction.
There is so many aspects that could turn this play into an unbearable tragedy: the era it is set in, when gay men weren’t exactly accepted in society, the age gap between characters, the naivety of Alan, finally the claustrophobic, small space and closeness of actors to the audience. But nothing goes wrong!
The script, by Bill Rosenfield, is written with flare and humour. At no point does the audience gets bored or lose attention.
Matthew Baldwin plays the character of Robert with self irony that is both light and endearing. He doesn’t exactly seduce Alan, but rather guides Alan on a journey of self-discovery. This character of unfulfilled, ageing actor could so easily become overbearing and it’s a credit to Baldwin’s acting talent that it remained likable throughout the evening.The 16 years old Alan, played by recent East 15 graduate Jak Ford-Lane, is naive and inexperienced, but with the right measure of bravado and curiosity to make him a full-rounded, multidimensional character, in whom we can all recognise shards of our own younger selves… Ford-Lane plays Alan with conviction, commitment and mature professionalism.
The play under direction of Joshua Stamp-Simon is light, entertaining, moving and very consciously staged: the smallness of the space becomes irrelevant, as actors play to all three sides of the audience in mind, and we feel invited to share their intimacy, to be part of that story rather than to intrude on private space.
That is not a small achievement especially considering full nudity scenes, which are always tricky to stage, so often turning into an embarrassed and badly executed conceptual idea.
The aspects I can say very little about are set and lighting design: due to the space restrictions very little is required, very little is delivered and it is precisely all that is needed.
Watching the audience responses I can confidently say that 46 Beacon, despite it’s unfortunate, meaningless title, is a very well written coming-of-age story, excellently acted, staged and that everyone who will go and see it is up for an unexpected pleasant treat of an evening.
I wish the whole company much longer run that the current short one at the Hope Theatre. They deserve it! But there is still time to catch it – 46 Beacon runs until Monday 12 October, 7:45pm at The Hope and Anchor, Islington. (Running time 85min).
Reviewer – Anna Mors
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