REVIEW: SWEETMEAT at Old Red Lion 5 – 23 November 2024

‘Brave & disturbing, eat before you arrive’ ★★★★

No one can say they weren’t warned. As the bingo call of trigger warnings opens Sweetmeat, available to 16+ audiences, there’s no doubt, we’re in for some dark content and strong flavours. This 90-minute two-hander, with a fifteen-minute interval (audiences will appreciate a breather) is an edgy exploration of mutually consensual sexual cannibalism. The premise alone is a bit of a jaw dropper and conversation stopper. Who wants to go there? 

Well, bravo to writer Ivo de Jager who journeys to this no man’s land of cultural taboo. This production, not for the squeamish or censorial, is inspired by the 2001 Rotenburg Cannibal case which saw Armin Meiwes murder and consume a voluntary victim after advertising online. Bernd-Jüregen Armando Brandes answered the ad, up for the adventure and his life’s cessation. The act which was videoed, led to Miewes’s murder conviction

This disturbing true story of queer cannibalism came to de Jager’s attention, as “a young, lonely man” and has continued to be a subject of compulsive probing. Sweetmeat, a play in development since before 2017 when earlier versions were performed at Edinburgh and Brighton Fringe and Theatre 503, is the result. This is not only a bizarre love story (albeit one riven with carnality) but an empathetic exploration of queer vulnerability and mental health, as well as the pernicious influence of online culture and dangers of the dark web.

Sigmund, played by Matthew Dunlop is a pill-popping Swedish interpreter who after splitting from his girlfriend moves in with Christian, an awkward, needy librarian compellingly performed by Jamie McClean. They share the same taste in films and literature (Pasolini and the Marquis de Sade; no surprises there) and both harbour dark desires. An initially platonic friendship ruptures into a more intimate space and sado-masochistic boundaries are progressively tested.

In this dangerous relationship, which leads to the ultimate folies à deux, there is ascending action and believable performances. McClean totally channels the wide-eyed sacrificial lamb; his entire body language is of supplication, a need to be wanted and loved. Dunlop, more tense and angular, is a grenade with a loose pin. He lives in terror of the beast within bursting forth. The subject matter may be grisly, but the writing which combines verbatim extracts from Internet chat rooms interspersed with the poetic and philosophical, manages to convey the unspeakable with some lyricism. 

From the sacrificing of all for love and blind devotion to an invisible force, many parallels are drawn with religion. These themes are reflected by Conor Geoghegan’s direction - although the lighting design by Jess Paritt and use of film and sound do a better job of narrative framing than the shabby set. Favourite films are back projected as the two flatmates face the audience, giving a visual representation of fantasy melding with reality while expressing the screen as a portal to other lives. The use of choral music works best to underline the transcendental, devotional strands but some of the references are heavy handed. Using a song like, The Last Cut is the Deepest, and naming the characters Sigmund and Christian when the play offers psychoanalytic and religious responses is a bit...on the nose.

The sizable audience were fully engaged – there was tension and laughter - and the front row were advised of the dangers of potential splatter. There was plenty of the red stuff but gory, sensationalism aside, Sweetmeat approaches one of society's greatest taboos with maturity, intelligence, and empathy. By the end, you understand how in a parallel universe, this could happen, and the arc of the relationship makes the harrowing denouement believable. Part of theatre's remit is to take audiences to dark and difficult places, and this certainly does that with spirit and aplomb.

Ivo de Jager presents: 

SWEETMEAT at Old Red Lion 5 – 23 November

Box Office https://www.oldredliontheatre.co.uk/sweetmeat.html 

Written by Ivo de Jager

Directed by Connor Geoghegan

Starring Matthew Dunlop & Jamie McClean

Lighting by Jess Parritt