'I never thought it would be so f***ing boring,' says Joey Stefano (Christopher Pender) as he starts a six-hour shoot on a big budget porn film. The same could be said of this tedious one man show - an account of the life of Joey Stefano - a celebrated gay porn star of the 1990s who died at the height of his fame.
Any one-man-show-cum-bioplay risks being rather dull - the action is always discussed, the audience never see it - but Robert Chuter's show is a textbook example of how not to do it. It's too long, the dialogue is appalling (Stefano on ambition: 'I had an itch so deep within me no cock could touch it') and the supposedly shocking sex bits are just ridiculous.
At one point Pender engages in karaoke-porn, recreating Stefano's sexual positions while the audience is treated to the groans-ahoy soundtrack from which the movements came.
In another scene it drifts into a bizarre show-and-tell, Pender waving a Jeff Stryker dildo while informing us of the pay-rates of the gay porn business (financially, it seems it's better to give than receive).
Then, most ludicrously of all, Pender puts on a police outfit and does a protracted strip show, bringing the first half to an anti-climax. Why? We'd seen his wares ten minutes earlier when the banal monologue had him showing us his trimmed pubic hair.
If Stefano's life story was exciting or interesting, Barry Lowe's script has done an excellent job of making it seem otherwise. Avoid.
Until Sun, Pleasance Theatre, Carpenter's Mews, North Road N7, Tue to Sat 7.45pm, Sun mat 5.15pm, £9.50, £7 concs. Tel: 020 7609 1800. www.pleasance.co.uk. Tube: Caledonian Road
Homme Fatale
