It seems only fitting that director Shane Bosher return to Auckland to direct a play from his bucket list for the company he co-founded. Presented by Silo Theatre and Auckland Live, the title of Mike Bartlett’s Laurence Olivier Award-winning play may put some people off, but it epitomises the raw honesty of the dialogue which drives Bartlett’s script. We’re fortunate that New Zealand’s LGBTQ+ rights and protections are some of the most advanced and liberal in the world, and yet bisexuality remains as elusive as it does anywhere else. Which is why, even eight years after debuting at the Royal Court, Cock is just as relevant in Auckland in 2017. 

An acting teacher once told me that every scene is about either the beginning of a relationship, the end of a relationship, or the beginning of the end of a relationship. Not content with one, or even two, of these circumstances, Bartlett infuses all three in a battle for not only love, but also identity. These are not easy characters to play, and the cast do an admirable job of portraying them without hesitation, warts and all. [More] 

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Cock is a bold, eyebrow-raising and expectation-generating title but rest assured, Silo Theatre’s latest play is not what you’d expect. Director Shane Bosher’s version of the Olivier award-winner by British playwright Mike Bartlett is a simple, understated and tense comedy.

After seven years, John, the hapless and sad-faced protagonist, decides he is tired of his boyfriend constantly judging him. So he dumps him then, in the throes of the post-break-up post-mortem, meets and sleeps with a woman for the first time.

The experience goes well but then John decides he wants to get back with his ex and drama ensues. [More] 

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Cock is a play about sexuality, power and identity. Yes, it’s confronting and personal, but there is no ‘real’ nudity or sex on stage. It’s much more honest than that. 

Written by UK playwright Mike Bartlett and directed by Shane Bosher, Cock is a sharp, witty and clever play which probes how we define ourselves in terms of the relationships in our lives.  

John (Duncan Ragg) is in a rocky but committed seven-year relationship with another man (unnamed, simply called ‘M’ and played by Matt Minto). The play opens on the verge of their breaking up but then John is back on M’s doorstep, wanting to get back together.

However, as his astute boyfriend quickly realises, there is a catch – John has slept with a woman (also unnamed, simply called ‘W’ and played by Matilda Ridgway) and possibly fallen in love. John is back to ask for help.

Thus the stage for Cock is set. It’s a love triangle. And John can’t choose. It’s not just M or W he’s choosing between, but a future where he’s either gay or straight. Having never been attracted to, or had a relationship with a woman before, is it possible he got it wrong when he came out? Or is he bisexual? Is it just a case of the grass with someone else is greener? 

The play probes the conversation around bisexuality. It’s a challenging thing to quantify using the accepted sexual binaries. It can be dismissed as a transition state, or a way to hide the truth of sexual identity. In her essay in the play’s programme, Jess Holly Bates quotes academic Carolyn Pajor as calling bisexuals, “the white trash of the gay world.”

Society has carved out ways to respond to the ‘coming out’ narrative, but the conversation is more difficult on how to respond to men who go back into the closet. Is it simply about falling in love with the person, or is it more than that?  

John is being told he needs to decide who/what he is, in relation to both his sexuality and who he wants to be with. To answer the question his male lover, M, throws a dinner party, with a surprise guest, M’s father (Carl Bland). It takes skill to bring a new actor into the mix part way through, especially into a conversation so private, but Carl Bland brings just the right energy when he arrives as F, the father.

The Auckland production of Cock is based on the award-winning production Shane Bosher directed in Sydney two years ago. The Auckland staging brings in two new actors to join two of the original cast members.

Bosher does a stunning job with a stunning cast. The performances are taut, emotionally raw and the tension of the piece fizzes. When the actors are intimate, or get metaphorically ‘naked’, we feel like accidental voyeurs, it’s as powerful as if they were truly naked in front of us. 

Instead of realism, it is hyper naturalistic. The world is a construct. There are no sets, no props, only brief lighting/music changes to delineate scenes. The objects are referenced but there is deliberately no pantomime. This means that even the dialogue about seemingly mundane things is forced to work on deeper levels. It’s used as a way to express uncomfortable emotional undertones and highlights the way we use objects in social situations to mitigate our engagement with the world around us.

Performed in the semi-round, the play demands a kind of audience engagement. The set is based loosely on the idea of a cockfight: the desire in humanity to watch animals battle it out in a gristly manner. The audience are constantly reminded that we are not supposed to be there to be passive observers but, as we watch the actors circle and catch the expressions of fellow audience members around us, we are uncomfortably reminded that we are there to witness something psychologically bloody.   

Cock is a play which, while related to sexuality identity, ripples out more into a broader exploration of identity. It’s about how we all must find ourselves, within and without our sexuality and the relationships we build around that. It’s about negotiating the rules of living. It’s a sort of modern comedy of manners.   

A thrillingly perfected production. 

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