Fragile
Arcola, E8
**
Venus As a Boy
Soho Theatre
**
Do two demi-mondes make a whole? Venus as a Boy is set among male and formerly male prostitutes, Fragile in the low-paid, mafia-run world of London's immigrants from the former Yugoslavia.
In the former, Tam Dean Burn, with no props but a low table and some dresses, tells the story of Cupid, a beautiful youth from Orkney who finds his mere touch can take man or woman past the point of ecstasy. The talent leads him, rather sadly, to Soho's red-light district.
It's a tale adapted from a novel. The author, Luke Sutherland, is on stage, accompanying Burn on guitar. Problems of adaptation abound. As the plot muddles along episodically, there's a feeling of missing detail. Strands of thought pop up intermittently - thoughts on racism and Christianity and love - but there's never enough for the mind to grapple with.
It's an incoherence that Burn's gentle charisma can't fix. And though he admits at the start that his features are not right for an Adonis, he does not attempt any impression of youth. A camp middle-aged man sucked into prostitution tugs at the heartstrings less. There is a certain amount of gutsy cross-dressing, if you like the tragic fabulousness thing. Other than that, as the actress said to the post-op transsexual, where's the point?
Fragile is a big play for the Arcola's tiny studio space - and the director and designer struggle to make it work.
Developing her story of a Croatian singer and a Serb stand-up, playwright Tena Stivicic does us a favour and takes the Balkan atrocities for granted - a young English playwright would have milked them for all they're worth.
The occasional comment on the immigrant state of mind strikes home but the action feels arbitrary, and the characters strangely under-motivated. Some coarse acting doesn't help. Demi-baked.
Venus as a Boy: until 22 Sept (0870 429 6883, www.sohotheatre.com).
Fragile: until 29 Sept (020 7503 1646, www.arcolatheatre.com).
Venus as a boy/Fragile
