★★★✰✰
Written and performed by Terry Geo, Blink is a one man gay rom-com. The play, directed by Paul T Davies, follows Jake Falden throughout his relationship with Akida, a Kenyan refugee who is HIV positive. The play explores contemporary queerness, interracial relationships, and the stigma behind HIV and refugees in the UK; all very pressing and important issues facing LGBTQ+ people today. At a sixty minute run time, the play is short and sweet, but unfortunately falls short of finding heart.
Terry Geo plays Jake with an earnest openness, taking us through gay clubs, Kenyan restaurants, and audition rooms. The script is solid, and full of laugh-out-loud jokes, though struggled with pacing. Geo has a charm that could have truly shined had there been a couple of beats in various moments. Certainly a one-man show is a difficult feat to pull off, especially as so much of the play is not about Jake himself but his partner. Geo has given himself a difficult task, as the politics around telling someone else’s story is complicated, especially in regards to race and trauma. His partner, whose story the play actually revolves around, is not the man on stage in front of us. This was further compounded by lines like “Do you know why I hate racism the most? Because of how stupid it is”; offering no real insight into Akida’s personhood. The result was a feeling of lack—the emotion and depth behind Akida’s various traumatic experiences were not present on stage, and the script certainly didn’t stop piling the tragedy on. The storytelling format also didn’t show so much as explicitly tell, and could have been aided by lighting and sound. The most enjoyable scene, taking place at the club, was one of the few that offered some visual variety as Geo used the entire stage, a welcome change to the minimal blocking.
That said, the play discusses its themes of HIV with grace and poise, and offers an open conversation to a stigmatised subject. A representative from PositiveEast, a charity offering a comprehensive and holistic range of HIV support and prevention services, was also offered time at the end of the play to speak on the issues, which is an important touch.
Blink is still a play worth seeing, as while it may fumble with some of the big themes it has brought to the table, it has still opened discussions that need to happen in today’s day and age in the UK, a truly admirable feat.
Blink will be performed at Headgate Theatre on 21 and 22 October as part of Colchester Fringe.
Words by Buse Tobin
Support The Indiependent
We’re trying to raise £200 a month to help cover our operational costs. This includes our ‘Writer of the Month’ awards, where we recognise the amazing work produced by our contributor team. If you’ve enjoyed reading our site, we’d really appreciate it if you could donate to The Indiependent. Whether you can give £1 or £10, you’d be making a huge difference to our small team.