Thom Gunn: The Man with Night Sweats at Wilton’s Music Hall

While Thom Gunn’s body of work could easily lend itself to both narrative-driven and more impressionistic forms of theatre, Dead Poets Live opted for a more straightforward playbook on the 20^th anniversary of his death. Starring Rupert Everett as Gunn, the production arranges 14 of the poet’s compositions semi-chronologically, reflecting the phases of his life before, during and after The Man with Night Sweats (1992) – his vivid testimony as a witness and survivor of the AIDS crisis of the 80s as a gay man in San Francisco. Despite the gravity of the subject matter, the tone remains conversational rather than confessional – a stylistic choice that mirrors the late poet’s sensibilities. Everett’s performance deftly captures this rejection of raw confessionalism in favour of a more measured approach, channelling Gunn’s sharp wit and cutting irony with a relaxed, natural delivery.

Opening with Gunn’s early romantic musings about his own mother and coming-of-age infatuation with Tony White, an actor and Cambridge contemporary, the play encompasses his life beyond the decades he spent in San Francisco. The poems are interspersed with original dialogue between Gunn and a narrator and centre on the people and stories that inspired them, grounding each work rather than abstracting it. The dynamic between verses and everyday speech adds to the conversational element, as Gunn names and describes the individuals he had loved and lost. In Lament, the death of his close friend Allen Noseworthy, who died in an emergency room in 1984 is personalised with intimate details about his final months. The elegy itself vividly captures the raw emotions surrounding Noseworthy’s passing, from his intense rage as he was wheeled through the swinging door to the unsettling image of the breathing tube inserted into his body. 

Although much of the story unfolds in Northern California, Tony White is revisited after his tragic, untimely death in halfway through the play with Talbot Road, while his mother’s suicide is recalled in The Gas-Poker, a third-person account originally written when he was 15, at the very end. Despite the specific people, places, and years that Gunn references, the resilient grief that inspires his work transcends these particulars. This is accentuated by the open, sparse stage, which is intentionally void-like, featuring only chairs for Gunn and the narrator. The minimalist set design keeps the focus on the spoken word, while the endurance of life amid the looming presence of death becomes more pronounced in the amplified silence. Dramatic shifts in lighting create shadows that envelop everything and everyone at various points in the show, leaving only Gunn illuminated during even the darkest verses.

Christina Yang
Image: Courtesy of Wilton’s Music Hall

Thom Gunn: The Man with Night Sweats is at Wilton’s Music Hall from 2^nd until 4^th October 2024. For further information or to book visit the theatre’s website here.