MiniReview: "Twilight Song" by Kevin Elyot

What is it?

A play by English playwright Kevin Elyot, originally produced in London in 2017 (three years after the playwright’s death).

We liked one of his plays before.

Yeah, that was a corker (to use an English expression).   

Is this a corker too?

Not so much.

Okay, what’s it about?

It’s surprisingly complex for such a short play! It takes place in three different time periods, and tells the story (not in chronological order) of a family whose lives are affected by random sexual relations. In the opening scene, we see fifty-something Barry agree to a hookup with an estate agent who’s come to assess his home. Then, in 1961, we see Barry’s great-uncle (I think I’ve got this right) trying to get it on with his male friend (who will later commit suicide because he’s being blackmailed by a random guy he had sex with, who’s now threatening to out him, which would end his career and status as a solicitor). And Barry’s mother, we find out, had a second child with a random guy she had sex with in the early years of her marriage, and then lost the child, and in the contemporary scenes she imagines what a wonderful person that second, lost son must be, in contrast to Barry, whom she sees as worthless.

That’s a lot of plot! But the play’s short?

Yes. Too short, I think. We get little hints about things, but oftentimes they aren’t fleshed out. For instance, the son of the solicitor who killed himself is also gay, like his father. But is that significant? That character never appears in the play, so I’m not sure what we’re supposed to make of his homo-sexuality, or why it’s important. It’s an intriguing play, but I get the feeling it needed more work, and perhaps some fleshing out.

What’s the theme, though? That’s a lot of gay characters.

Yeah, I don’t really know. I don’t really think it’s a show about homosexuality, but about sexuality, and how it leads us astray, gay and straight alike. But it’s hard to pin down. The opening scene is intriguing, but then it all kind of unravels disappointingly. Delightful foreplay, but uninspired sex.