Totally Nude

I’ve seen far too many naked men in the past week. Firstly, on Tuesday I saw Fred Bear and David Hoyle in the nud on stage at Royal Vauxhall Tavern, then on Friday I went to this thing at the Barbican where there were two men sat talking in a bath tub.

It was a play called Tough Time, Nice Time. Set in a spa in Bangkok, it featured two Germans sharing details of their lives – their youth, sexual encounters and experiences of watching friends die – along with frivolous topics like films they had seen and their concerns over the effects of celebrity.



The premise sounded fair enough but I was a bit nervous that the production company is called Ridiculusmus, it all sounded a bit "Legs Akimbo Dance Company" and I wasn’t too sure what to expect.

Thankfully it wasn’t at all drama school and wanky, but I’m still a little unclear exactly what they hoped they were achieving. The interaction between the characters drew an obvious comparison to Kiss of the Spider Woman, where two men are alone in a room and spend their time talking and swapping stories - one quite serious and the other more likely to retreat into fantasy. But with this production there was no explanation of what the men were doing there and how they’d both found themselves in the same place. With no real beginning middle or end, it was just a snap shot of a conversation and I didn’t feel I’d actually “been” anywhere when I left.

I liked some of the stories though, particularly the character Stefan who was annoyed at himself that when he saw the news headlines about the Israeli Prime Minister Sharon a couple of years ago, thought that “Sharon” must be Sharon Osbourne. I remember I did *exactly* the same and felt foolish, even more so because I didn’t know that a Prime Minister Sharon existed until that moment.

I used to worry about my scant knowledge of current affairs but now, with the warming self-acceptance that comes with maturity, I can’t be bothered. If I can’t do anything about the situation in (insert name of foreign country) then what does it matter if I don’t know about it?

Whenever I read a newspaper I feel like I will go insane, so now I just pick them up for the Sudoku. Some would consider this air-brained, but it’s more to do with preserving my sanity.