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Homo(sapien)

The Studio, Edinburgh

Four stars

 

Meet Joey. He’s just turned up at church for his best mate’s mum’s funeral looking and smelling like he’s spent the night in Sodom, and has a eulogy to give. Before all that, however, Joey has a story to tell, not just about what happened last night, but how a gay Catholic teenager like him growing up in Galway managed to navigate his way to who he is. And why not? As the great big cross at the centre of the stage makes clear, he’s in the right place to confess all. 

 

Conor O'Dwyer performs his debut solo play with an unfettered brio in Jen McGregor’s production, which comes home following an Edinburgh Festival Fringe run and several years of development care of Capital Theatres and others. In what is clearly a labour of love for O’Dwyer, the play sees Joey bluff his way through school and embrace a few stereotypes en route to enlightenment beyond being a self styled ‘bad gay’.

 

While O’Dwyer’s writing makes clear there are still threats to Joey’s everyday life, there is also a positive future ahead. This is highlighted by the fact that, while his accidental funeral outfit may be a giveaway, overall no-one really cares less what he gets up to in his private life. 

 

O’Dwyer’s writing and performance come with a confidence and skill that brings home Joey’s getting of wisdom by concentrating on both the ordinariness of it along with the sense of wonder he feels. The latter is heightened by a gay club friendly electronic soundtrack burbling throughout Joey’s litany of his adventures. And if Pete Shelley’s very complementary 1981 cut, Homosapien, isn’t in the mix, it probably should be. 


By the end, O'Dwyer's opus has become a good old-fashioned coming of age story in which once troubled teens win the day to face the future.


The Herald, February 16th 2026

 

ends

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