In 2009, British playwright Mike Bartlett would find himself on walks through London during the writing of his next piece – a play centred not entirely on sexuality, but with a tighter focus on relationships and personal identity, and the fight to achieve them.
Stumbling into late night cock fights, Bartlett started drawing parallels between the idea of these two creatures fighting to be heard; similar to domestic relationships, where egos can appear in the bloody sport of ripping each other apart.
Cock is now an award-winning production that has played to audiences in London’s West End, on Broadway, and now Vancouver’s Rumble Theatre takes it on.
Under artistic director Stephen Drover, Cock opens Oct. 30 and centres around John, a man who, having recently ended a long term relationship with his boyfriend, falls for a woman.
“It’s about sexuality, but it’s more complex than just labels,” Drover explains. “Sexuality is more fluid than a labelled system allows.”
Suddenly everyone wants to know who John is, who he’s sleeping with, and who it makes him as a person.
“People are infinitely more complex than even they know,” Drover says. “We talked in rehearsal about the idea that everyone is a little bit bisexual. Societal norms can squash and repress that.”
He chuckles at the notion of the title, and the obvious attention it brings, but says the show isn’t as vulgar as it may come across.
“This is a play teenagers really should see.”
Drover stuck tightly to the original script and stage direction, which is minimal. There isn’t a set, no props, no furniture and a strict adherence to the forbidding of any miming. Undoubtedly a challenge for the cast, he says it allowed for more freedom, and artistic choices, resulting in a very actor-driven play.
“What drew me to this project was that I don’t think it comes down one way or the other on the issue, or makes a bold statement,” Drover says. “Instead, it asks questions.”
• Cock opens Oct. 30 at Performance Works and runs until Nov. 7. Tickets available at Rumble.org
