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International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival 2023: Connor O’Donoghue’s Homobesity is honest, open and hilarious

Plus The Importance of Being Earnest as Performed by Three F*cking Queens and a Duck: It’s meant to be chaotic, but it’s plain confusing, too

International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival 2023: Connor O’Donoghue in Homobesity

Derek Byrne
Wed May 3 2023 - 11:29

Homobesity

Outhouse Theatre, Dublin
★★★★☆

Homobesity is a series of highly personal, deeply emotional stories told by Connor O’Donoghue, an Irish writer and performer based in London, about his lifelong journey with obesity and homosexuality.

Despite the intensity of the subject matter, this is an honest, open and often hilarious account of O’Donoghue’s experiences growing up in rural Ireland, studying at Trinity College Dublin, where he shared a flat with 13 18-year-old men, and, ultimately, moving to London, where he became an internet porn sensation on a website that catered for fat fetishists.

[ Homobesity: How one overweight, gay, middle-aged man learned to be comfortable in his skin ]

Simplicity is the key to the success of this play, which takes the audience on an emotional roller coaster as O’Donoghue comes to terms with being seductive and sexy as a gay man in his own skin.

Most powerful of all is a short piece where he opens up about his anger at thin privilege. You can feel the tension as he repeats the refrain “F**k you, thin people!” to an audience faced to look at their prejudices head on in the well-polished psychological mirror he holds before them.

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A clever narrative on the dark side of human nature and the gay male aesthetic, Homobesity is storytelling at its best.

Runs at Outhouse Theatre, 105 Capel Street, Dublin 1, until Saturday, May 6th, as part of International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival

International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival 2023: The Importance of Being Earnest as Performed by Three F*cking Queens and a Duck

The Importance of Being Earnest as Performed by Three F*cking Queens and a Duck

Teacher’s Club, Dublin
★★☆☆☆

Steve Dawson’s play, about three Lady Bracknell wannabes who decide to stage Oscar Wilde’s classic comedy of errors, sold out at Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2014, 2018 and 2022. It’s a great idea, but the play may have become a victim of its own success.

The actors – Dawson, Brent Thorpe and Liam O’Kane – seem overly familiar with the material. This appears to have played havoc with the pace of the performance. It’s meant to have a sense of chaos, but the cast deliver their lines so fast that it’s hard to keep up. It’s easy to be left confused rather than entertained.

A tighter focus would help the remaining performances, as the play clearly has so much potential – some of the lines are hilarious – and its three performers are unquestionably talented. In its current state, though, it doesn’t quite translate.

Runs at the Teachers’ Club, 36 Parnell Square West, Dublin 1, until Saturday, May 6th, as part of International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival

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