Robert Tanitch reviews Teddy Ferrara at Donmar Warehouse, London WC2
An American student commits suicide. Did he commit suicide because he was gay? Is homophobia rife at the university?
Teddy Ferrara (Ryan McParland) is a socially awkward and singularly unappealing loner. In the privacy of his room, he is an exhibitionist on porn websites. His room-mate, unbeknownst to him, decides to film him in action and out him on the Internet.
American playwright Christopher Shinn’s polemic is based on a true incident. Did you know that 23% of lesbian, gay and bisexual young people have tried to take their own life at some point? So, what should the university be doing?
There’s a good cast. Luke Newberry is a gay activist with political ambitions. Nathan Wiley is his best mate who is straight. Oliver Johnstone is his lover and editor of the university newspaper.
Christopher Imbrosciano repeats the role he played on Broadway: a wheelchair-bound student who fancies him.
Matthew March is amusing as the principal whose circumlocutory rhetoric gets him into a politically incorrect mess.
There is nothing wrong with either Dominic Cooke’s production or the performances; but Shinn’s canvas is so broad and there are so many characters, you may feel, like I did, that the polemics would fare so much better in a soap on television, the bitty script’s rightful home, and where it might also reach the audience it needs to.
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