Quentin Crisp: Naked Hope

Mark Farrelly’s moving, hilarious sensitive 2013 play about that most flamboyant of gay men: Quentin Crisp, is still going strong. I saw it at Crazy Coqs recently.

Crisp, of course, beneath the outrageous banter and the witty one-liners, was a deeply troubled man never allowed to be himself.

And it’s that poignant ambivalence which Farrelly nails exquisitely both as playwright and actor.

The play – modelled on the shows Crisp did in New York once he’d become famous – falls into two halves. At first Crisp acts out and tells the story of his own life, including his brief career as a rent boy, living in a squalid (“after four years the dust doesn’t get any worse”) bedsit and, always dressed like a bird of paradise, being the victim of frequent homophobic attacks. Farrelly has the young Crisp’s voice perfectly – measured, effeminate and rising to a sing-song high note in almost every sentence. He also hops briefly in and out of other roles when he’s describing an incident.

Then the lights dim and Farrelly changes into more formal, louche but fairly conventional clothes and a grey wig. Now we’re in New York and the older Crisp is entertaining an audience and answering questions with, by now, well practised wicked punch lines. The voice has matured and is slightly more even now. The care with which Farrelly has observed these subtleties is awe inspiring.

Watching him is like being present at an acting masterclass Quentin Crisp: Naked Hope is extraordinary.

UK tour dates to June 2022