Days of Light

Days of Light

By Godfrey Hamilton

Starving Artists

Royal Exchange Studio, 1 February 2012

This is a play about those who love and are left behind.

The central (puer) figure is Nathan, but he always appears offstage.  Instead, attention falls on his mother, a certain Miss Pekoe (which sees Kate Layden create a character at once elegant and wounded), and his lover Milo (or is it Mario?), played by Mark Pinkosh.

It’s an engaging and ultimately moving play, putting one in mind of a James Purdy novella.  Only with lots of recondite movie info.  Pinkosh is a marvel, as always, and it’s good to see him playing with a worthy opponent in Kate Layden.  That’s how flow experiences arise, from challenges.  Now, unaccountably, I have an urgent desire to hear Mark Pinkosh’s richly resonant voice pronounce the name ‘Csikszentmihalyi’…

Days of Light is at the Royal Exchange Studio until 4 February, details here.

Road Movie @ the Library Theatre

Road Movie
Written by Godfrey Hamilton and performed by Mark Pinkosh
Starving Artists
Library Theatre Company, 19 May 2010

The words you remember are ‘I want a cure and I want my friends back’ and they are spoken by Joel, Mark Pinosh’s principal heteronym.  Although a monologue, Pinkosh brings to life myriad characters in turn, Joel being the sole abiding presence.

Pinkosh is electric on stage, his face intense and incredibly expressive, his arms animated and urgent, as he brings Joel and Scott’s story fully to life.  Faux-naif and faux vain, he was.  Despairing and then joking, playing the audience for all he was worth.

Those who help us are human too – they have the same resources we do, no more.  One take-home message.

‘I want a cure and I want my friends back.’  Yes, but if only one wish could be granted, which would you choose?

Road Movie is showing at the Library Theatre in Manchester until 22nd May, as part of the Queer Up North festival.