Beautiful Thing, Jonathan Harvey’s bittersweet gay comedy about young love opens this Friday. It runs at The Old Mill Theatre, South Perth from 11 to 26 March.
Coronation Street writer Jonathan Harvey is at his insightful and hilarious best in this iconic portrait of adolescent self-discovery.
A gloriously nostalgic trip back to the early nineties, bright with sensitivity, pathos and wit, it has a summery soundtrack of beautiful Mama Cass songs.
In a run-down Thamesmead council estate, Jamie is bullied at school and Ste is bullied at home. One evening, Ste seeks refuge at Jamie’s. Something exciting and beautiful begins.
At turns tough and tender, this upliftingly optimistic play captures exquisitely and joyously what it is to be sixteen, in the first flush of love and full of optimism.
Deftly combining comedy with ardent drama, the play resounds, with characters that abound with attitude, energy, frankness and humour.
Beautiful Thing is directed by award-winning director Barry Park whose recent productions include the iconic gay play The Boys in the Band, as well as Hay Fever, Arcadia, Present Laughter and August: Osage County.
Park has long wanted to direct Beautiful Thing, having enjoyed watching previous stage productions and the 1996 film adaptation.
“It’s a beautiful, tender, compassionate comedy that captures so effectively the tenderness and excitement of first love, and the joy of acceptance and personal growth,” Park says.
Debuting in 1993, the play was soon heralded as the crown jewel of gay storytelling, a gentle coming-of-age tale of two teenagers, that struck a powerful chord among LGBTQI+ audiences.
It was staged at the Bush Theatre in London, toured in the West End, adapted into a 1996 movie also written by Harvey, and was recently named by the British Film Institute as one of the 30 best LGBT movies of all time.
“Engrossing and heart-warming, the play focuses on two damaged boys and the love that heals them, portraying the tension and beauty of a secret adolescent love in a time and place when gay relationships weren’t generally accepted,” Park says.
“The characters are interesting and delicately detailed, with genuine voices. There is absorbing conflict, aching, soul-searching emotion and clever, amusing teenage banter.”
“Jamie, the central character, a shy, sensitive teenager who dislikes sports and is often bullied at school, has a secret crush on athletic Ste, the boy next door.”
“Ste, who is having a rough time at home, being beaten by his alcoholic father and drug-dealing brother, is allowed to stay over at his neighbour, Jamie’s place after an incident with his abusive father,” Park says.
“There, the boys grow close, and a tender loving relationship gradually develops between them. When revealed, it is a life-changing event for them and their tight-knit community.”
“The three other characters who offer much-needed emotional support are integral to the plot,” Park says.
“Leah, who hangs out with Jamie, is a quirky, back-chatting Mama Cass-wannabee. Expelled from school, she sunbathes, sings, takes drugs and rails against the world.”
“Sandra, Jamie’s caring single mum with a heart of gold, is a struggling, hard-working barmaid who longs for a better life.”
“And middle-class, pot smoking Tony, Sandra’s latest young boyfriend, is a neo-hippy artist who, although an amusing fish out of water, does his best to be helpful.”
“Highlighted by the gloriously uplifting music of Mama Cass, Beautiful Thing is a wonderfully upbeat play that is ultimately a celebration of a beautiful relationship,” Park says.
Beautiful Thing is remembered for being a feel-good tale when the gay plays at the time were taking on doom and gloom stories and the AIDS crisis. Few had happy endings.
When Jonathan Harvey wrote it there was no equal age of consent (21 for gays, 16 for straight teens) and the tabloids perpetuated homophobia.
Twenty-eight years on, much has changed, but this important play speaks to today’s audiences just as powerfully.
Park observes, “The play hasn’t really dated, as it’s not just about the fear of coming out. It’s a beautiful story about first love and coming of age too.”
The play was certainly ground-breaking. The original production was met with some homophobic disapproval. An Evening Standard headline on 24 November 1994 screamed, ‘The council cries foul play’.
The article read: ‘Jonathan Harvey’s West End hit Beautiful Thing is ‘sickening’ – that’s official – as far as Bexley Borough Council is concerned.
‘Harvey’s play, about gay love is, of course, set in Thamesmead, part of which falls under the council’s aegis.
‘You might think fame for the borough would fill the breast of Bexley Tory councillor Graham R Holland, but no. The Duke of York’s Theatre last week received a very severe letter from him on the council’s headed paper.
‘It criticises the billing of Harvey’s gay love story as a comedy and says the Holland family were ‘intimidated’ by gays in the bar and that they found ‘the sight of older men with young lads was sickening, if legal’.
‘He goes on to complain about the play’s ‘sordid’ language: ‘It was gratuitous, foul and offensive and was neither relevant nor, with my experience of Thamesmead … in any way typical of the young people with whom I am in contact.’ The shocked family group left after 20 minutes.’
The Old Mill production of Beautiful Thing features Stacey Broomhead, Cooper Gray, Orla Poole, Felix Malcolm and Ashvath Singh Kunadi.
See the play at the Old Mill Theatre, Mends Street, South Perth 7.30pm 11 to 12, 16 to 19, 24 to 26 March 2022, and 2pm 13 and 20 March. Book at TryBooking or telephone 0491 633 037
Source: Media Release
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