Upstaged Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Reviewer: Daniel Shipman
Based on a 1977 cult text of the same by Larry Mitchell, The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions is a new opera composed by Ted Huffman with direction and text by Philip Venables. The mode of performance is more akin to that of storytellers gathered around a fire than your ‘typical’ opera – nobody here is playing a named role. Instead, the performers tell us stories of two historical revolutions which saw the rise of ‘the men’ and the oppression of minorities like the faggots, the women, the queens, and the faeries in the fictional land of Ramrod. The final minutes of the performance then hypothesise a third, future revolution that will see the end of a patriarchal society and a return to a more equitable way of living for all.
The text may be fantastical and based on a nearly 50-year-old text, but the parallels with modern society are easy to see. The phrase ‘at once timely and timeless’ is thrown around all too frequently nowadays, but it truly does apply here. There are occasional signs which betray the age of the source material – it’s unlikely we’d see the passage of gay marriage posited as a negative thing in a modern text – but for the most part, it is shocking and saddening to see how many of the struggles Mitchell wrote about in 1977 are still applicable to queer life in 2023.
The politics of this piece do not focus exclusively on gay liberation though, far from it. Intersectionality is at the heart of this piece, and it takes in women’s rights, racial equality, the perils of late-stage capitalism, and the destruction of the environment to show how oppression works across all of these categories.
It probably sounds like very heavy, sincere, and worthy material, and it’s true that the production does not shy away from heavier topics. However, it is approached with such rousing ferocity and queer joy that you leave the theatre feeling more inspired and proactive than when you arrived. The performer-musicians are all hugely talented and capable of climbing from the most delicate leitmotif to a cacophonous noise at the drop of a hat.
Huffman’s music is the focus of this production, and rightly so. Whilst many may see opera as a genre that overwhelmingly re-produces scores that are hundreds of years old, Huffman finds a way forward for the style which demonstrates just how vital it can still be. If you have an opera cynic you’re looking to convince, this is the perfect place to start.
There are occasional moments that could have been trimmed out. The final moments in particular stand out as a slightly damp conclusion to an otherwise fiery piece of theatre. For the most part though, this is a glorious piece of communal storytelling in its purest form – sharing tales that have been passed down generationally, using them to inspire, to comfort, to warn, and to entertain each other.
-Daniel Shipman
The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions, part of Manchester International Festival 2023, runs at HOME until 2 July.