Edinburgh International Festival Theatre Church Hill Theatre Five stars Four sexy boys line up at the back of the stage like pretty maids in a row at the start of this electrically charged adaptation of Édouard Louis’ autobiographical novel about growing up gay in an impoverished working class French town, where being a tough guy counts. The quartet of handsome devils could be the usual suspects in a police identity parade, something the crime scene style tent that is erected by them in the next few minutes in a brief burst of manual labour seems to confirm. Once things get going in Norwegian director Eline Arbo’s production, however, they more resemble a classic boy band, hanging tough in costume designer Rebekka Wörmann ’s streetwise trappings, which can’t help but betray an intent of homo-erotic camp. Sure enough, the whole gang are singing and dancing within minutes. This provides a surprising levity to Louis’ brutal rites of passage, which charts a messy childhood of bull
An archive of arts writing by Neil Cooper. Effete No Obstacle.