Review: FOAM, Finborough Theatre

Photo credit: Craig Fuller

The Finborough Theatre has unearthed another gem in Harry McDonald’s Foam - a new play about radical right wing politics and sexuality.

In a series of public toilets, Foam shows several episodes in the life of Nicky, a Nazi skinhead whose sworn, violent allegiance to fascism is consistently brought into conflict with his identity as a gay man.

McDonald’s tight script is frank, unflinching and provocative, and comes vividly to life onstage in the capable hands of director Matthew Iliffe.

Iliffe leans into the discomfort of the show, not shrinking away from the contradictions, paradoxes and internal hypocrisies tied in with kink.

Foam is a boundary-pushing piece flirting with taboos, and courting danger and hatred. McDonald explores the space, represented by a seedy public bathroom, where internalised shame and sexuality collide in a form of masochism that bleeds from the bathroom stalls into the wider world as a moral and political issue.

Jake Richards as Nicky is a marvel and utterly transformative from naive and radicalised youth to barbaric criminal. Richards’ initial vulnerability makes a poignant return in a different guise in the final scene of the play, rounding off this character portrait with something close to a redemption arc.

Matthew Baldwin is brilliant as slimy Mosley, exuding an insidious and creeping threat that balances well with Nicky’s hot-headed, thumping anger. In a clever piece of multi-roling, Baldwin’s character in the final episode is a complete departure from Mosley, introducing some rare intimacy and affection to this play with aching warmth.

Keanu Adolphus Johnson also shines in another inspired doubling of roles. As Nazi-punching Bird, Johnson is the first character who holds Nicky to account in a rousing moment of triumph and relief for the audience. This bathroom encounter is fraught but cathartic, and it took a fair bit of willpower to restrain ourselves from jumping up from our seats and fist-pumping the air.

Kishore Walker completes this strong cast of chameleon performers and particularly impresses as the pornographer Christopher, finding comic beats in a scene teeming with violence and depravity.

The set of this production is remarkable. We never fail to be dazzled by the ingenuity and creativity of designers at the Finborough Theatre. Nitin Parmer’s stunning set design works in harmony with Jonathan Chan’s gorgeously sensual lighting.

Along with the rest of this powerhouse creative team, Pam Tait is also a master storyteller through her costume design - tracking the decades as well as the interplay of fashion and politics through that iconic wardrobe staple of both punks and poofs: the Doc Marten boot.

Fight and intimacy director Jess Tucker Boyd deserves their own round of applause for the physical sequences that fizz with animalistic tension and barely restrained violence.

This show is entering its closing week but we pray that Foam follows the success of Iliffe’s last Finborough Theatre production (Sophie Swithinbank’s Bacon) and enjoys a transfer to give as many people as possible the chance to experience this vital and challenging drama that will never not be relevant.

A riveting drama of conflict and contradictions, Foam looks to be one of our theatre highlights for 2024.

***** Five stars

Reviewed by: Livvy Perrett

Foam plays at the Finborough Theatre until 13 April, with further information here.