Review: Fuckboy, Riverside Studios
10/07/2024
Part of Riverside Studios Bitesize Festival, Fuckboy is a play about gender dysphoria that packs a lot into its 50 minutes.
Written and performed by Freddie Haberfellner, it explores how it feels to navigate a disconnect between one's sense of self and assigned gender through four interweaving timelines in the life of Frankie.
There's a drink-fuelled night out at a club, a tube journey from Aldgate to Richmond carrying a pair of scissors, a fantasy scenario involving Andrew Garfield and therapy sessions.
It has an increasingly frantic pace, flicking between timelines with a blink of a lighting change.
Tube stations tick down, the desire to use the scissors hung ominously within reach above the stage grows, questions become increasingly probing, and a need to have fun while getting increasingly drunk.
Time spent in the fantasy with Andrew Garfield is an amusing place of calm and contentment.
Yet there are constant questions about self, how Frankie feels, their experiences and treatment by others. Where do they fit in when they don't feel at home in their own body, and what does that mean about their place in the world?
Sitting in the audience, you feel like you are party to the inner monologue of racing mind—that sense of grabbing and letting go of thoughts and then circling back. It's almost a challenge to keep up.
Freddie Haberfellner's script is witty and moving, and the energetic performance is sunny and dark.
Fuckboy is a potent tangle of mental imagery, thoughts and interactions. It has a lot to say about what gender dysphoria feels like but also how the world treats and views those who don't fit into prescribed norms.
I'm giving it ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Fuckboy, Riverside Studios
Written and performed by Freddie Haberfellner (he/him)
Running time 50 minutes
Booking until 14 July for more details, visit the Riverside Studios website
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