Review: JARMAN, King’s Head Theatre

The King’s Head Theatre is probably the most renowned of London’s pub theatres, with a history of boundary-pushing queer theatre that dates back over 50 years. Mark Farrelly’s new one-man show that recounts the life, work, and artistic spirit of celebrated gay filmmaker Derek Jarman is a perfect fit for this space, as part of the theatre’s Boys! Boys! Boys! Summer Season.

Mark Farrelly’s script, interlaced with lines of metaphysical poetry and Shakespearean verse, has the fluid sense of interchangeable time and place of a life flashing before someone’s eyes in the moments before their death as he careers around the stage in a frenzy of creative inspiration, which gives way inevitably to the startling embodiment of Jarman’s prolonged and painful death from HIV/AIDs.

Farrelly is equipped with minimal set and props – he conjures up the rich visuals of Jarman’s world with florid language and some dexterously conducted sound and lighting effects to spark the audience’s imagination.

Farrelly is astonishingly charismatic, but unselfish with his stage. This isn’t truly a one-man show – he draws his audience in, quite literally, to assist with set-building, brainstorming, and even a threesome. Sarah Louise-Young’s direction works well to enable the filmic grace and fluidity in this production.

We had the distinct pleasure of sitting next to a gentleman who must have been a Jarman expert, given the constant underscoring of self-congratulatory and knowing grunts he provided the performance. It was good to know that someone in the visibly queer audience of the *King’s Head Theatre* knew who Saint Sebastian was otherwise I’m sure we’d all be completely lost.

A reverential show performed with verve, wit and passion – Jarman will lift you from your seat and inspire you to be astonishing.

**** Four stars

Reviewed by: Livvy Perrett

Jarman plays at the King’s Head Theatre until 26 August, with tickets available here.