The Upcoming
  • Culture
    • Art
    • Cinema
      • Movie reviews
      • Film festivals
    • Food & Drinks
      • News & Features
      • Restaurant & bar reviews
      • Interviews & Recipes
    • Literature
    • Music
      • Live music
    • Theatre
    • Shows & On demand
  • Fashion & Lifestyle
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
  • What’s On
    • Art exhibitions
    • Theatre shows
  • Tickets
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Fund us
    • Contact us
  • Interviews
  • Competitions
  • Special events
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • Tumblr

  • RSS


CultureTheatre

Away From Home at Jermyn Street

Away From Home at Jermyn Street | Theatre review
14 March 2014
Timothy Bano
Timothy Bano
Avatar
Timothy Bano
14 March 2014

There is not a single openly gay player in the Premier League. To football enthusiast Rob Ward this seems odd; together with co-writer Martin Jameson (who also directs) he seeks to reconcile the two major aspects of his life: his sexuality and his passion for football.Away from home

Away From Home consists of an hour-long monologue delivered by Kyle (Ward), a male escort and football fanatic who is surprised when one of his clients turns out to be a star footballer. Ward delivers the monologue with extraordinary energy and deftness, switching nimbly between voices and changing his mannerisms when he is pretending to be the other characters in the story (though his Cockney accent is a little off the mark). Ward has a natural raconteurial ability and, even if the story is not that fascinating, his delivery really fires up the audience’s imagination and it is difficult not to hang on to his every word. It is very compelling to watch.

The simple star-crossed lovers plot is not remarkable. Or at least it shouldn’t be. But this is what the play is trying to provoke: that football and homosexuality do not sit comfortably side by side at all. And it is, admittedly, very odd to hear Kyle describe the laddish excitement and outrageous chants of a football match immediately before a graphic reenactment of him screwing some other guy.

Away From Home is successful in apposing the two worlds of football and homosexuality, and seeing how they clash. Both football and homosexuality have an accompanying culture; they have identifiable traits that form stereotypes and the attitudes of the public. While the characters that Kyle describes in the play adhere to stock types (the homophobic father, the peaceable mother, the supportive friend) the play does seem to challenge these stereotypes in an effective way. But it is difficult to see how the play will feed productively into a debate about homosexuality and homophobia in football – Kyle is not the ideal poster boy for the gay community. He is a rash, sex-hungry prostitute. And will the play attract an audience that might have the power to change opinion within football, an audience that is not composed of stereotypical (liberal, artsy, middle-class) theatregoers? Well, here’s hoping.

Timothy Bano

Away From Home is on at Jermyn Street Theatre until 28th March 2014, for further information or to book visit here.

Watch the trailer for Away From Home here:

Related Items

More in Theatre

Tobacco Road

★★★★★
Daniel McLeod
Read More

The American Clock at the Old Vic

★★★★★
Connor Campbell
Read More

Edward II at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse

★★★★★
Georgie Cowan-Turner
Read More

Babylon Beyond Borders at the Bush Theatre

★★★★★
Marissa Khaos
Read More

Can-Can! at Union Theatre

★★★★★
Sophia Moss
Read More

Tilda Swinton Answers an Ad on Craigslist

★★★★★
Jonathan Marshall
Read More

Rip It Up: The 60s at Garrick Theatre

★★★★★
Ezelle Alblas
Read More

Pinter Seven at the Harold Pinter Theatre

★★★★★
Rosamund Kelby
Read More

The Price at Wyndham’s Theatre

★★★★★
Cleo Henry
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Tickets

Theatre tickets

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • The Kid Who Would Be King
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Everybody’s Talking About Jamie at the Apollo Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Rip It Up: The 60s at Garrick Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Mr Jones
    ★★★★★
    Berlinale
  • Bastille at Brixton Academy
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Riona Treacy autumn/winter 2019 collection presentation for LFW
    Fashion weeks
  • Idol (Woo Sang)
    ★★★★★
    Berlinale
  • Johan Ku autumn/winter 2019 collection catwalk show for LFW
    Fashion weeks
  • Reconstructing Utøya (Rekonstruktion Utøya)
    ★★★★★
    Berlinale
  • ISOSCELES Lingerie autumn/winter 2019 collection presentation for LFW
    Fashion weeks
  • Idol (Woo Sang)
    ★★★★★
    Berlinale
  • Reconstructing Utøya (Rekonstruktion Utøya)
    ★★★★★
    Berlinale
  • Tobacco Road
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • So Long, My Son (Di jiu tian chang): Wang Xiaoshuai’s expertly sprawling yet personal examination of three decades of life in China
    ★★★★★
    Berlinale
  • So Long, My Son (Di jiu tian chang) press conference with Wang Xiaoshuai, Du Jiang, Ai Liya, Yong Mei, Wang Jingchun, Qi Xi, Zhao Yanguozhang and Liu Xuan
    Berlinale

Instagram

Something is wrong.
Instagram token error.
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Fund us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • What, when, why

Copyright © 2018 FL Media Ltd

Shadowland at the Peacock | Theatre review
The Crimson ProjeKCt at Shepherd’s Bush Empire | Live review