Review: A GUIDE FOR THE HOMESICK, Trafalgar Studios

Teddy (Clifford Samuel) meets Jeremy (Douglas Booth) at the bar of a shabby hotel in Amsterdam; Teddy asks if he wants to join him in his room, and Jeremy agrees. Upstairs, they get very close in an entirely confusing play.

Written by Ken Urban and directed by Jonathan O'Boyle, A Guide For The Homesick doesn't know where to land. It tries to juggle too many themes at once, brushing them all but managing not to analyse any of them.

Mental illness, sexuality, politics, relationships, the HIV crisis in Uganda, and the rise of anti-gay movements are all dealt with in this concoction. Booth is disturbingly camp as Jeremy; with a New Jersey accent that's all over the place, he's pedantic and unlikeable at best.

Samuel keeps the play rolling, but his faint brilliance is neither constant enough nor attracts an equal reaction from Booth, resulting in the latter dragging his performance down as well.

The issues start at the top with the script. Its hardly believable set-up and the outlandish behaviour of its characters, who are bundles of clichés, make it arid and perplexing.

O'Boyle's contribution is also baffling and makes the story feel even more forced. The random appearance of upside-down sprinklers to simulate rain falling on Booth while he shouts the same line over and over again is the icing on the cake, except that you mistakenly used salt instead of sugar for the whole thing.

Essentially, Jeremy should have left when he first threatened to do so, sparing the audience an additional hour of back-and-forths.

A Guide For The Homesick runs at Trafalgar Studios until 24 November.

Photo credit: Helen Maybanks

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