A well put together show that you will want to discuss after
Tealight is a one man show starring Josh Maughan, written by Maughan and Katie Bourne, and directed by Tobias Abbott and Saskia Mollard. It tells the story of Lucas, a young queer man navigating being single in a world seemingly filled with couples, while also working in the complaints department of Grindr, the infamous gay “dating” app. The show is a blend of comedy and tragedy but leans hardest on the serious and dramatic as the main crux of the show.
Maughan gives a good performance as Lucas and is able to make him feel very much like a real person with a strong exterior but vulnerability and anxiety hiding only just below the surface. Lucas is the character that feels most natural, with some of the brief glimpses of other characters that we get, feeling far more like 2D caricatures rather than real people in this world. The voiceover moments, where other characters are heard but not heard, work well with strong timing making these moments very slick and not interrupting the momentum of the show.
The lighting and sound was well done throughout. There was the almost ubiquitous strobe light effect to simulate a nightclub, and some other more subtle lighting, all of which worked well. The show was also well directed and made good use of the space and also the audience. The set is minimal, consisting of a single white office chair, but I did not feel that anything more was needed and any more elaborate staging would have felt superfluous.
On a technical basis, this was a well done show with some well written dialogue, a good performance, and solid directing, and yet the actual thrust and messaging of the show I feel needed more work. In its short 70 minute run time this show is perhaps too unfocused with a few too many moments and scenes happening which seemed to have little consequence to the show as a whole. The extended scene between Lucas and his mother, while entertaining and providing us an insight into why Lucas is the way he is, I did not feel that this added much to the show, and very little if anything from this conversation actually seemed connected to the main narrative thrust. The show has an interesting premise and character, but these felt underexplored and underutilised.
There were also some bizarre, almost offensive moments of the show. All of the female characters in the show are described in not the nicest of terms and this never came back as part of the narrative. Similarly, a line about queerness and blurring the boundaries of consent being inextricably linked is thrown out and then never explored, justified, or even mentioned again.
In conclusion, this show is well put together and does keep you engaged throughout, but I did leave the theatre wondering what purpose certain sections served. I would recommend this show to a young queer group of friends and encourage them to plan in time after the show to thoroughly discuss and dissect it, as I certainly left wanting to talk about it.
Tealight is playing at the Hope Theatre from the 4th – 7th December