The Switchboard Project at Hope Theatre
James Baldwin nestled on the bookshelf, a whiteboard sporting the words, “There are condoms in my pigeon hole – please take some,” and an assortment of old wire telephones. At first glance, the premises could be a college dorm outfitted for study, but the four women crowded into the meagre space are on urgent, 24-hour duty. Joan, Lou, Jackie and Nana (Megan Keaveny, Fatima Abdullahi, Aine McNamara and Hannah Balogun, respectively) are volunteers for Switchboard, the LGBT+ helpline launched in 1974, and with every answered call, the responsibility of information and guidance to London’s queer community is taken in hand. Naturally, the ratio of earnest personal disclosures and requests for help to admissions of highly specific sexual predilections and bouts of homophobic aggression can seem unbalanced at the best of times.
In these brief instances of connection (or stark disconnection), director Molly Byrne’s play is at its most persuasive, urgent and funny. Entering the fray for the first time, anxious, awkward Jackie is promptly greeted by a woman eager to inform her of the hedgehog that just wandered in. “Is the hedgehog gay?” she asks, with the utmost seriousness. Other calls are of a more harrowing nature, many pertaining to the ongoing AIDS epidemic that places events within the 80s. A distressed, non-sexually active young man calls in the belief that he may have contracted the disease simply for the fact of his queerness. A closeted married woman calls for little more than a moment’s solidarity as she stares down the remaining years before her children leave the house. Another, panicked young man launches into self-loathing vitriol before the line is disconnected.
Still, The Switchboard Project is first and foremost a workplace dramedy, and while the messy interpersonal dynamics of the four-woman strong team are winningly played by the cast, compared with the stories on the other end of the line, they are only half-convincing. Joan and Lou have ample resentment left over from a recent break-up, allowing for screwball banter that co-exists pleasantly with the endearingly awkward stirrings of new romance between newbie Jackie and returning veteran Nana. Still, later dramatic developments feel dramatically underpowered, and the play’s steady hangout pace adds little urgency. One is tempted to imagine a version of the play that zeroed in solely on the grind of the work itself, as queer volunteers commit themselves to a task that can seem life-savingly urgent one moment and wholly futile the next, and all without expectation of reward or thanks.
Ultimately, The Switchboard Project is, at its best, an affectingly sincere look at genuine, altruistic care for community placed into action, with a light touch that renders its 90 minutes equally fleet and relaxed. Nonetheless, while engagingly played, the interpersonal dynamics of the cast are less sure-footed than the tense calls that provide the core action.
Thomas Messner
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The Switchboard Project is at Hope Theatre from 2nd until 20th September 2025. For further information or to book visit the theatre’s website here.
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