Out in the Open

Here is a play I could not put down once I started it, and which I have read and reread since. It is one of the most appealing of Harvey's works. This was the first play after Beautiful Thing in which he allowed himself to show a budding romance, once again in a less-than-supportive environment but with a very different and unhackneyed story premise which I would not dream of revealing. In this play the main pair are adults, twenty-one and thirty-three. An important part of the "subject" is honesty and courage, not as in Beautiful Thing about their gay sexuality which the pair have accepted long before, but about fidelity, friendship, their real reasons for life choices. It may be an achievement for Harvey, who finds it easy to write caustic repartee, to create a character like Iggy who is so appealingly clear-sighted, frank and grounded, both emotionally deep and a convincingly ordinary young man. (What a pity no film version exists to let us see James McAvoy in this part, which he performed at the original production at the Hampstead Theatre in 2001. There are three pictures of McAvoy and Mark Bonnar in the play at www.jamesmcavoy.com.) Tony, the other main character, has started to have habit and middle-class pressures chip away badly at his expectations from life and his self-connectedness, but the irruption of Iggy into his life gives him his best chance to change that. Mary, Monica, Kevin and Rose work so well on their own as serio-comic characters that one could forget how effective they are at jolting the plot forward. Fun as Leah and Tony were in Beautiful Thing, the supporting characters in this play show a real dramaturgical advance. Their dialog is electric, with the characters simultaneously exposing themselves and half convincing us of their sharply contrasted takes on things as long as they are speaking. This is a really enjoyable and memorable play which has confirmed my admiration for Harvey.

For the legion of "Beautiful Thing" fans, this is the closest project to the theme of Harvey's earlier instant classic. There is much fun along the way and the character of Leah in "Beautiful Thing" has a delightful long lost sister spirit in this play. Essential for Jonathan Harvey play collections.