Torch Song review: Gay play trilogy gives London's newest theatre an auspicious opening

A firecracker performance by Matthew Needham lights up this streamlined version of Harvey Fierstein’s classic gay trilogy, smartly helmed by choreographer turned director Drew McOnie. Needham, star of Chernobyl and last summer’s stage hit Summer and Smoke, plays Arnold, a drag queen and torch singer looking for love in the sexual free-for all of late 70s/early 80s New York. By turns waspish, playful and vulnerable, he leads a strong cast in a bold opening for London’s newest theatre.

The Turbine is in a railway arch beside the thrusting Battersea Power Station development. The raw brick ceiling of the space is echoed by Ryan Dawson Laight’s set design, and the trains – quite a few of them – thundering overhead actually fit the gritty urban setting.

The end-on tunnel vision of the staging also suits the show, which starts off with monologues from Arnold - including a hilarious one-sided conversation conducted during a backroom bar sex act – and his on-off lover Ed (Dino Fetscher).

Gradually, the action opens out to embrace a bed, as Ed’s wife and Arnold’s new boyfriend complicate the equation, and then a poky apartment as family enters the mix, in the shape of Arnold’s exasperated Jewish mother and his adopted son David. The three acts are marked by neon lights which fizz and wink out. A metaphor for love, sexual desire or life, perhaps.

It’s a sarky, sparky evening, infused with a very distinctive, arch brand of New York high camp. But beneath the fizzing one-liners, McOnie draws emotionally exposing performances from his cast, including Rish Shah and a stunningly confident Jay Lycurgo as David, both making their professional debuts.

This auspicious opening for the Turbine increases the buzz around an emerging new city district (full disclosure: I live 20 minutes away). But the trains will be an issue for plays, unlike this one, where it might look odd for characters to shout over them.

Until 13 Oct (020 7851 0300, theturbinetheatre.com)