The play could be pigeon-holed as a gay play, an AIDS play, an 80s period piece, but the beauty of Robert Hastie’s production is that it transcends all these labels, elevating Elyot’s writing to a minor-key classic. That the play focuses on a group of gay friends throughout the 80s living under the (never-mentioned) shadow of HIV/AIDS is never in doubt but the main theme, the driving force behind so much of what – the fear of ending up alone – is utterly, completely universal.
Elyot stretches his narrative over 4 years and 3 key events in the lives of old long-lost university friends Guy, Daniel and John and their close circle of friends. Reunited at first at a flat-warming for Guy, there’s a gloriously funny air to proceedings as they rehash old rituals and memories – has David Bowie’s Starman ever seemed so gorgeous? But the mood soon shifts as secrets start to tumble out – the long-held flames, the torrid affairs, the soul-crushing desolation.