David Jobling
Review - Go By Night
:
A Cockless Wonder
Go By Night
Writer: Stephen House
Performed by: Stephen Sheehan
Original Direction: Nick Gill
Venue: Downstairs Belvoir St.
Johnny Boy lives at home with his mother and father. The mother is stereo-typically a martyr in her attitude to the wife beating husband, he can bash me, but he can't hurt me is her motto. The father rules in an alcoholic stupor and is free with his physical punishment. The mother tells Johnny to leave, to go and make a better place for himself in the world and not to be like his father.
He leaves the country town and hitches a ride with a truck driver, straining to see the drivers penis when he relieves himself by the roadside. He secretly hopes the truck driver with the strong legs will notice he is checking out his crotch and a hot time will ensue. Johnny's obviousness is wasted on the truck driver - he starts talking about his wife and children, and the young girl hitch-hiker he picked up last week and had sex with.
Johnny gets to the city and begins to hang around with his new street-wise mates. He struggles with his sexual feelings for the gay-basher leader of the group, Dog. To prove to Dog, and himself, he's not like those poofters (gays) he helps lure a man who is walking in the park into a murderous bashing trap.
Johnny needs money, so he turns to prostitution. He's then introduced to a transsexual Madam who asks him to do a once only cock in a frock trick that will pay well. Johnny tentatively tries on the stockings and high-heel shoes that lead to his demise. He does the job and falls into a life of prostitution and drugs, then he dies - destitute, lonely, broken hearted, and owing money to his dealer - rejected by all his new found peers.
The basic premise of this play is that it explores one boy's collision with the reality of big city life. Stephen Sheehan played Johnny with the aplomb of someone rushing for a train. It is really hard to know if the performance was directed that way, or if the end of the last night was too alluring to take enough time to deliver the dialogue clearly. The play, as a whole, told the story of Johnny but failed to give much real insight into his world. We saw his world but did not get any understanding of the reasons behind the choices he made. After all, he had gay feelings to start with, and he had already taken recreational drugs before he left his country home. If we are to see this as an exploration of a boy's collision with the reality of big city life then we have to know what made him go from being a drug hip closeted gay country kid to a dead drug addicted transvestite prostitute. (We also question why he falls through so many gaps in the net provided to support him - no mention of CenterLink, DOCS gets an early mention and DCS, Department of Correctional Services, is treated like a push-over tea party.)
Go By Night won (among many awards) a Best Solo Performance at the 1998 Melbourne Fringe Festival, so maybe I missed something, maybe I missed a lot? This play doesn't really go beyond the stereotypical and so wallows around in a fit of exploitation, with South Australian prudishness to boot! After all, a naked actor saying poignantly when everything's stripped away this is all you have turning around to face upstage to take off his G-string, looks a little silly hiding his penis from the audience, especially since it has been the main focus driving the action from start to finish.
Review by: Peter McGill
Writer: Stephen House
Performed by: Stephen Sheehan
Original Direction: Nick Gill
Venue: Downstairs Belvoir St.
Johnny Boy lives at home with his mother and father. The mother is stereo-typically a martyr in her attitude to the wife beating husband, he can bash me, but he can't hurt me is her motto. The father rules in an alcoholic stupor and is free with his physical punishment. The mother tells Johnny to leave, to go and make a better place for himself in the world and not to be like his father.
He leaves the country town and hitches a ride with a truck driver, straining to see the drivers penis when he relieves himself by the roadside. He secretly hopes the truck driver with the strong legs will notice he is checking out his crotch and a hot time will ensue. Johnny's obviousness is wasted on the truck driver - he starts talking about his wife and children, and the young girl hitch-hiker he picked up last week and had sex with.
Johnny gets to the city and begins to hang around with his new street-wise mates. He struggles with his sexual feelings for the gay-basher leader of the group, Dog. To prove to Dog, and himself, he's not like those poofters (gays) he helps lure a man who is walking in the park into a murderous bashing trap.
Johnny needs money, so he turns to prostitution. He's then introduced to a transsexual Madam who asks him to do a once only cock in a frock trick that will pay well. Johnny tentatively tries on the stockings and high-heel shoes that lead to his demise. He does the job and falls into a life of prostitution and drugs, then he dies - destitute, lonely, broken hearted, and owing money to his dealer - rejected by all his new found peers.
The basic premise of this play is that it explores one boy's collision with the reality of big city life. Stephen Sheehan played Johnny with the aplomb of someone rushing for a train. It is really hard to know if the performance was directed that way, or if the end of the last night was too alluring to take enough time to deliver the dialogue clearly. The play, as a whole, told the story of Johnny but failed to give much real insight into his world. We saw his world but did not get any understanding of the reasons behind the choices he made. After all, he had gay feelings to start with, and he had already taken recreational drugs before he left his country home. If we are to see this as an exploration of a boy's collision with the reality of big city life then we have to know what made him go from being a drug hip closeted gay country kid to a dead drug addicted transvestite prostitute. (We also question why he falls through so many gaps in the net provided to support him - no mention of CenterLink, DOCS gets an early mention and DCS, Department of Correctional Services, is treated like a push-over tea party.)
Go By Night won (among many awards) a Best Solo Performance at the 1998 Melbourne Fringe Festival, so maybe I missed something, maybe I missed a lot? This play doesn't really go beyond the stereotypical and so wallows around in a fit of exploitation, with South Australian prudishness to boot! After all, a naked actor saying poignantly when everything's stripped away this is all you have turning around to face upstage to take off his G-string, looks a little silly hiding his penis from the audience, especially since it has been the main focus driving the action from start to finish.
Review by: Peter McGill
