Hot White Kiss

As a theatre-maker myself, I was interested in checking out The Butterfly Club’s One Act Play festival, and when I saw that poet James WF Roberts was staging his first theatre show Hot White Kiss, I was keen. As a poet myself, I hadn’t seen James read for some years. But what I did remember from his poetry was that it was dark, sexually charged, politically incorrect, messy and raw – my kind of poetry.

The play Hot White Kiss is based on a poem James wrote many years ago, a poem that came second in the Page 17 poetry competition which I judged completely blind. Page 17, in its later years, was a journal run by BusyBird Publishing, and Blaise Van Hecke, who passed away suddenly a few years ago and is well known in Australia’s literary circles as a champion for marginalised and grass-roots writing. So I am sure she would be pleased, as am I, that this poem is now a play!

The Butterfly Club is secretly tucked away in a thin laneway off Little Collins Street in the city. Inside, its maze-like layout, quirky trinkets and cosy bar make you feel like you are in a secret club, a vast contrast to say, the Melbourne Theatre Company, who have loads of money to splash at productions – The Butterfly Club is not that. The vibe is underground theatre that rises from the ashes because it has to and it must – it’s about survival.

If you are looking to be challenged, and you are interested in seeing something a bit raw and real, like you are a little fly on the wall overhearing conversations you really shouldn’t be listening to but really want to, then Hot White Kiss will be an interesting night of theatre for you. A short one-act play of 50 minutes, we have three actors on stage, two women, one man.

The blurb reads: John, 35-45 years old, bisexual/ polyamorous, writer and poet, is addicted to Leena, (30-39) whom he met as a teenager who taught him how to play the Winter Largo—and their tempestuous, twisted, toxic lover affair has been on and off for the last several years. Hot White Kiss, is an uncompromising look at three people involved in a toxic bisexual, polyamorous relationships and the fallout from addiction, past traumas and lust. Leena’s true love is not John or Cilla, but Heroin. Cilla is a drug-dealer who shares a tragic past of addiction and abuse with Leena. John is desperate to escape the endless cycle of drugs, addiction, manipulation and trauma.

The reason for my cut-and-paste of the blub isn’t because I am lazy, it’s to point out that for me, there was also another very interesting element to this play: how women manipulate, and how women abuse each other and also how they can also abuse men. A very controversial thing to say these days in light of the horrid murders and rapes of women in our country, where women are falling like dominos. Yet I did leave the play thinking that perhaps feminism’s fight for them to ‘stop killing us’ has allowed abusive women to fly under the radar, something I very much have personally experienced. However, in today’s political climate, it is a topic that doesn’t have room to breathe. By staging this play, I feel James is so bravely stating ‘well, I am going to carve the space for this anyway. Feminists, come kill me for it’. Here I must insert a LOL.   

There were also some other very interesting and relevant themes. As someone who has loved ones who suffer from addiction, James did a good job of depicting the enabler relationship, and that although there is only one person taking the substance, it infects everyone around them.

While it was a little clunky at times, I was challenged by this play (in a good way) and I was also comforted by it, because, as I said, I have had some of these experiences, and when we see art that reflects back to us our own pain and struggle, we are comforted by it because we feel less alone. The problem with art these days it that it doesn’t take risks, and it stays clear of politically incorrect content. But that only further marginalises the marginalised. The acting by Paolo Bartolomei, Melissa Tan and Bridgette Kucher was believable, passionate and appropriate in bringing this toxic triangle to life.

I really applaud The Butterfly Club for putting on this festival. Unfortunately, I am currently touring Australia and New Zealand with my new poetry book, with short stints to rest at home in Melbourne, otherwise I would have loved to come and check out all of the one-act plays. I see them as small springboards, where you can imagine what they can become. Hot White Kiss was a poem, then a one act play, but I don’t think that’s the end of it. It felt like a stepping-stone. I can see this being a bigger, fuller production, with more than one act. At the moment it feels like a strong idea that hasn’t taken flight yet. Maybe one day it will be at the MTC!    

Koraly Dimitriadis

Photographer: Pilar

Koraly Dimitriadis is a Cypriot-Australian poet, writer and performer and the author of Love and F—k Poems, Just Give Me The Pills and She’s Not Normal. Her theatre show, I say the wrong things all the time, premiered at La Mama in 2016.

Hot White Kiss runs 18^th & 23^rd March at The Butterfly Club. Book tickets here. The One Act Play Festival runs 4^th – 23^rd March. More info