Ode To Joy (How Gordon got to go to the Nasty Pig Party)

This Scottish trio brings to the Sydney Festival outrageously gay, obscene fantasies of joyous group sex, without ever taking off their clothes. 

They’re aiming for a monster sex pig party in Berlin and their training and backside ambitions are given agile and hilarious description. The action is played at such hysterical speed, volume and endearing Scottish accents, that it’s a thrill just keeping up. A printed glossary of gay slang for the chemicals and sex acts certainly helps.

The riot begins when Gordon, an uptight public servant, has a job reviewing the impact of the hated Brexit on Scotland’s gay venues. But with his own vanilla sexual tastes, “Prince Charming” with little beyond spooning, Gordon is a stranger to sex premises until he meets Manpussy and Cumpig and plunges into new depths and joys.

Lawrence Boothman is hysterical as the excitable Gordon defying Brexit by now leaping into Berlin to be fully charged by all the men of Europe, but also swooning in love for the sentimental tough lad, Cumpig (Sean Connor).  And in kilt and queer swagger, Marc MacKinnon makes a colossal, kind ManPussy. 

Not just for Gordan, Ode to Joy is about stretching yourself and your identity beyond ordained boundaries, reaching to extremes of experience. This adds a backbone of warmth and humanity to all this louche burlesque.

The drug overload in this mad world is really more shocking than the talk of group sex (with references though to PrEP as an AIDS prophylaxis). It’s not for the faint hearted but director James Ley makes some severely unconventional theatre with his own volcanic script for this young Scottish company, Stories Untold Productions .

Martin Portus

Photographer: Jacquie Manning