THEATRE REVIEW: Three Way - The Empty Space, Salford.

Bisexuals are the invisible B-team of the LGBT+ world. Split Infinitive’s new play “Three Way”, written by bisexual playwright Alexander Millington, contains wit, hotel toiletries, detailed pornographic language, and lots of references to male bisexuality. This evening’s performance was at the Empty Space, Salford, as part of the Greater Manchester Fringe Festival.

The mostly empty stage was lit dramatically in a purple-tinged hue, and the cast’s costumes were a stylish mix of purple, black and grey tones – just to thoroughly remind the audience that this was going to be an evening of bisexual theatre. Three actors were having an amiable chat with each other as the audience entered. They cheerfully introduced themselves, plugged the script being on sale in the foyer in true GM Fringe fashion, and then assumed their opening positions so that a loud recording of a woman in the throes of passion could boom out of the speakers.

Millington’s script is three monologues that are presented in alternating chunks, but without the actors acknowledging or interacting with each other. This is a little frustrating: the effect is of three one-actor plays occurring at the same time, and there wasn’t a strong enough unifier other than that each one involved a different bisexual man. Not being able to bounce off each other, the actors were also a little shy about bouncing off the audience – unusually for Salford, tonight’s audience were very decorous people who kept muffling their giggles – and it was a little more muted than the show is designed to be.

However, Alexander Millington, who also acted the role of David, delivered his monologue with calm confidence, and gave it an interesting texture that grew in richness as the performance developed. He immediately asked this maidenly reviewer for her name (I should have given my Editor’s...), and then used it repeatedly as that of the ladyfriend character who David is fathering a child with, in slightly graphic detail. David also has a husband, who ideally would like exclusivity from him, but the ladyfriend needed a sperm donor, and everybody was feeling helpful, and then David needs more than what his husband can offer, and there was a poignant moment where he is standing on a bridge and looking downwards, thinking of finishing everything - and then the real reason why he kept helping himself to tiny bottles from a hotel mini bar during the show was revealed.

Jamie Dunn, as Guy, was resplendent in just Ecce Homo underpants and a luxurious purple towel. Guy is in a different hotel, and for a different reason. A younger character than David, he has had lots of girlfriends, but so far only one limited experience with a man. After obtaining the names of several male audience members, and interweaving those into Guy’s travails with the dating world, Dunn gave an account of the arranged losing of Guy’s same-sex virginity that took up quite a lot of monologue chunks, and verbally left nothing to the imagination. It was a warm and engaging performance, tinged with vulnerability.

Naomi Phillips, as Clara, played a younger character still. Still a student, studying biology, her focus was on her divorced father. Unexpectedly she walks in on him in a clinch with a new male partner. After that relationship ends, a new wife enters the scene. Then geriatric health issues. Perhaps because Clara is a science student, Phillips kept her performance quite remote and detached and clinical, observing the scenario from a distance, without ever quite revealing what her character actually thought of all this.

Reviewer - Thalia Terpsichore
on - 7.9.21