Black Faggot

If this provocative offering from playwright Victor Roger is anything to go by, New Zealand's gay community revolves around two polarised archetypes. Some homosexuals, we observe, are insecure closet cases. They lack the fortitude to embrace their sexual predilections and spend their days feigning disgust at that which clearly arouses them. Others, by contrast, are assertive, self-actualised alpha males who meet bigoted confrontation head on, trash-talking their aggressors with the zeal of slighted PE teachers. “And what?” one character bellows after another has applied the show's title to him. “Bring it on motherfucker!” A partisan audience whoops in support.

Black Faggot mostly mines its humour and pathos from the eternal conflict between pride and fear, and has the good sense to sprinkle its content with broad laughs. Witness the high maintenance queen who throws a tantrum whenever his ejaculating lover dents the resale value of his furniture! Pity the young boy unable to comprehend the role played by his brother's special friend! Behold the office worker who regales his straight colleague with an explicit recollection of a satisfying night's anal sex, after having endured a boastful rundown of the latter's vanilla sex life!

There's definitely an element of preaching to the converted whenever Black Faggot strays into polemical territory. However, this theatrical sketch show's all about a minority taking ownership of the tools of its own oppression. Not only does it succeed on this front, but it's also frequently hilarious.

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