Cruise at Apollo Theatre

As the audience files out of the Apollo Theatre, the sense of awe and marvel at what they have just seen is palpable. This reinforces the entirely justified swathe of five-star praise for Cruise‘s previous run at the Duchess Theatre. The play is, undeniably, a dramatically stunning show and, most importantly, writer and performer Jack Holden has created a compassionate tribute to a seminal decade in London and British queer history: the 80s.

The play semi-autobiographically begins at Switchboard, the LGBTQ+ helpline founded in 1974, with Holden struggling to navigate the emotionally-demanding aspects of his volunteer role. When he receives a call from Michael Spencer, theatregoers are transported on a historical journey that charts the rise of the queer scene in London, and Spencer’s journey from naïve teen to grieving partner during the development of the AIDS crisis.

On that (at times, disappointingly) whistlestop journey, Holden skillfully and vividly portrays all of the colourful characters Spencer encounters on his journey, from hirsute drag queens to debonair Polari-speaking socialites. The glowing strength of Holden’s – and, indeed, director Bronagh Logan’s – skill lies in the sensitivity which underpins each characterisation. At no point is any character reduced to being merely functional: as should be the case in mainstream society outside the theatre doors, each individual is treated as a human should.

In addition, Prema Mehta’s multi-sourced lighting design and Nik Corrall’s multi-functional earthy and industrial-looking set are beautifully interwoven into Holden’s narrative to allow one to easily traverse the various locations Spencer recalls through his phonecall. 

The performance is especially masterful on a sound level, too, to the extent that Cruise should be praised as a two-person play: composer and musician John Patrick Elliott may not play a character, but his score is as essential to the success of the play as Holden’s sensitively deft multi-rolling. The instrumentation and genre of the score evolve from the country-pop of Patsy Kline to Chicago house, but it never loses its effortlessly contrapuntal capability to emphasise each separate dramatic moment.

Pacing issues aside, Cruise is undoubtedly a reaffirmation that theatre is the perfect mode of story-telling. The stories of Spencer and other queer characters are ones that, as the deserved standing ovation attests, have the right to be rapturously received by thousands. Do not wait for the feature film of the show that is currently in development – witness it now in all its theatrical glory.

Francis Nash
Photos: Pamela Raith

Cruise is at Apollo Theatre from 13^th August until 4^th September 2022. For further information or to book visit the theatre’s website here.