Edinburgh Fringe 2024
Diary of a Gay Disaster
Upfront Theatre
Genre: Drama, Musical Theatre
Venue: Underbelly Cowgate
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
The angels are upon us or at least Ellis, who ahs an awakening of sorts as she tries and sorts out her life whilst a couple of angels visit to help, or is it hinder, or do they want to rekindle things or are they just there for mischief making? In an hour we can tell.
Review
This is a fantastically bombastic and unapologetic journey into the queerest of desires and expectations. It works on so many levels – musically, in terms of narrative and we have three very adept performers – dramatically, because it has the drama and the tension matched and theatrically, because the relationships work, the production values are high enough for a Fringe and each performer knows how to interact with at least the front row to keep them interested.
There are some very well-structured tunes, which, though they did not last a long time in the memory, have some very interesting and effective lyrical choices especially within their choruses. As each character is peeled apart, thanks to a magic diary which has the holder’s secrets exposed we get a lot of detail about how someone can struggle with their identity and how they express that, how people judge when they know who they are or how you avoid “coming out” at all. As the straight father of three queer children, I was still finding things unfold as they were explained. But just like with my other kids, I was not making any comparisons. It was a very nice conceit and shows changes made from its previous iteration – and is much improved.
The idea of a couple of dyke angels is good. There are so many simple and crass things that could be done with it and the great thing about this is, they don’t follow the most obvious. Our angels may be far from angelic and through this very structured structure into which they fall, characterisation matters. It means that characters become more developed, there is no concentration on one, leaving any other like a spare character in search of meaning. Each performer shows a commitment not just to telling the tale but also to speaking their truth. There is an inescapable comedy but also an undeniable earnestness that this is more than a worthy story, it is indistinguishable from the cause.
And perhaps that is where I began to reflect more and more. This is entertainment but with a very strong idea of what it is and what it wants to say. It has great verve and vitality but there is no less a poignancy to the points being made. To say that I enjoyed it is one thing but there was more to my appreciation than that. It made me stop and think which is what has not happened in a musical to me for a long, long time. The genre can do serious really well, and here there are plenty of opportunities for humour that are mercilessly exploited but there is also a message wrapped within it which, thanks to the examples given and the exploration of each of those means that when these resonate with the audience, those of us who have never experienced them (Older people like me) perk up and take note. Or should do. This is a queer musical. I am neither a queer nor a musical fan, but this worked on every level for me.
