Exhibitionists Reviews

"Bed-hopping comedy of manners is a charmer"

"Set in San Francisco’s art world, Shaun McKenna and Andrew Van Sickle’s frothy farce brings a contemporary gay twist to an old-school comic formula"

"This frothy gay comedy of manners features two couples in the throes of a seven-year itch."

"Writers Shaun McKenna and Andrew Van Sickle speak of their love of screwball comedies in the play’s programme and it shows in their script’s abounding wisecracks and witty one-liners, all lathered in exaggerated camp here. Pacily directed by Bronagh Lagan, there are coincidences and hotel-room masquerades which, at times, make the play seem like a gay twist on restoration drama."

"Sometimes there is a too clear sense of the plot turning its screws, or themes being debated, but it is charming even so."

"The performances are full of verve although it is hard to believe in these romances. Nor do the actors quite plough the emotional depths of the script."

"Great new venue, shame about the play"

"Formerly in the back-room of a pub, the King’s Head in Islington has relocated to shiny new premises – but the opening work is a damp squib"

"The venue is cleaving to an LGBTQ+ programming slant. This is a commendable enough policy, but one hopes it will yield better work than its so-so opening play... There’s a real sense of déjà vu about this gay “comedy of manners”, not least because it seems so indebted to Coward’s Private Lives (now almost a century old)."

"The direction of emotional travel, with debates about the value of monogamy en route, is not hard to discern from the start. Which makes the 100-minute affair (directed by Bronagh Lagan) a bit of a trial, even though the evening gets more into its barbed stride once it relocates to a motel."

"Noël Coward for the Grindr generation"

"Although the gags and double entendres flow like New Year’s champagne, the production takes time to achieve lift-off. The trick with screwball comedy is to create dialogue that can fly elegantly while delivering the sting of truth; here, too often, there’s a sense of cheese and contrivance. Still, the script picks up pace as the exes Robbie and Conor discover each other and “elope”, leaving their abandoned paramours to follow in hot pursuit."

"Exhibitionists is spirited rather than definitive, but it’s not impossible to imagine the King’s Head’s legendary founder, Dan Crawford, watching it from the back of his swish new stalls and having a chuckle."

"Silly and sweet-natured"

"Slight, light and diverting comedy of manners"

"Co-written by seasoned playwright Shaun McKenna and newcomer Andrew Van Sickle, the dialogue is snappy and satisfying, full of sharp humour and stinging one-liners. But the plot is overly predictable, proceeding towards a neat happy ending that feels both contrived and unearned."

"Lagan’s staging is pacy and playful, keeping the actors power-walking about, passionately embracing and draping themselves languidly over the furniture as they verbally spar and flirt."

"Among a committed but uneven cast, Ashley D Gayle is strong as self-confident, deeply selfish Conor."

"The legendary venue reopens with a misfire – the only way is up"

"The pub theatre has moved next door but the unfunny comedy of gay manners that opens its new home is not remotely convincing"

"It has taken over 10 years for the King’s Head in Islington to move from its historic pub backroom to a purpose-built bunker next door. Surely, in all that time, a better play could have been found to inaugurate the new space than this unfunny comedy of gay manners. Despite a few good lines and a potentially intriguing scenario, this tale of four egomaniacs swapping partners and violent blows against a backdrop of swanky Californian excess feels phony from start to finish."

"Unfortunately, they flick from one emotional state to another – kissy-face to headbutt, vicious repudiation to lust – without a moment’s thought or consistency. And my god are these raging narcissists annoying; everything they do and say is overlaid with a preening, self-conscious, eye-rolling, cheek-tonguing veneer, especially the jokes."

"The new King’s Head kicks off with a cheery, sub-Coward gay romcom"

"Exhibitionists, the first production in the new home, is a new gay romcom with a clear and cheery message, one that should be self-evident but can still bear emphasising: gay marriages are as various as the other kind."

"Coward’s sparkling darts are unmatchable, and it is too hard to suggest the glacial tide tugging at the hilarity from below. There is plenty of anguish here, but it is all declared."

"The acting – many twitched eyebrows and licked lips – leaves too little to the imagination."