FringeReview UK 2024
Low Down
When a trans man realises he’s not going to get therapy through the NHS for at least another fifteen years, him and his friend decide that now is the time for action. So naturally, they start their own phone sex business.
Review
Raphie (Finn Harkin), a young trans man, who is desperate to fund his hormone therapy, realises he’s going to be on the NHS waiting list until his mid-thirties. With the help of his friend Em (Charlie Hansen), they start a phone sex business to fund Raphie’s testosterone therapy. Em sets up the advert online, describing Raphie as a young girl, with long hair and suddenly Raphie is helping random men to bash the bishop. As the business begins to boom, Raphie questions whether it’s worth it and wonders what his family will think of him physically transitioning.
This comedy challenges the concept of transgender norms and considers the effect a family’s support can have on the transitioning individual; with monologues about gender identity and what it really means to accept someone for who they are. Not just saying you’re an ‘ally’ whilst still seeing trans people as their assigned gender at birth with different pronouns. After staying at the end for the Q&A, many of the audience members said how they related to these monologues and were affected by how relatable they were. Though I am not trans and haven’t worked in the sex industry, I found both of these monologues, particularly Raphie’s, considered and engaging. The monologues felt real and spoke about vulnerable topics, the acting gave the lines space to sit, which gave me goosebumps.
In the Q&A, Charlie Hansen explained they used to work in the phone sex business and they used verbatim in the script from their own experience. The phone sex dialogue was outrageous and very funny. With how ridiculous the phone sex scenes were, it’s funnier knowing that this is real and how it actually happens in the phone sex industry.
The acting was natural and I could see the thoughts coming from both of the actors. Charlie Hansen brought quirky energy to their character and Finn Harkin brought a more relaxed performance. Both actors felt like real people and it seemed like I was watching a real friendship.
For this to be ‘Excellent Work’, there needs to be more work done on the story. Though the story was humorous and spoke to the audience with its main theme, the story didn’t have many ups and downs. It seemed obvious where the story was going, and it was mainly just phone sex calls. The audience laughed a lot but I felt there needed to be more of a story. There could have been more challenges in the plot because it seemed like it was a straight journey to getting the money through the business’s success. We saw small moments of conflict but not enough. Watching the characters face challenges earns us the ending but the ending felt expected without anything stopping it. Em challenged Raphie at one point, on their relationship revolving around him but we never returned to this afterwards. Em spent a lot of time helping Raphie with his fund and it almost seemed like they didn’t have a life, even with occasional references to their university work. It could be worth exploring what is going on in Em’s personal life and seeing if that leads to conflict between the characters.
The constant blackouts also killed the momentum. Any energy that was created always ended with a blackout. Sometimes blackouts can be used to intentionally affect the audience. I saw ‘Slave Play’ earlier this week and the blackout at the end was long and intentional after a bold piece of theatre; it held the final moment of the play and made the words sink in. The blackouts here felt like a transition and sapped the spark out of the scenes. I would implore the actors to search for other ways to transition between the scenes or use the blackouts intentionally to affect the audience.
Finally, though the acting was good and natural, it felt somewhat flat. Particularly, excluding the monologue, Finn Harkin seemed slightly unenergized in the show. There was a stark difference in his characteristics from the end of the performance to the Q&A, where it felt like he came more alive. Charlie Hansen also came slightly more alive in the Q&A too. Though they said they are self-directed, I would advise getting a Director in to fix their performance dynamics.
I saw Finn Harkin perform in the ‘Be Project’ in 2022 with great energy; his casting is what originally drew me to this show. He is capable of a far more energised performance and I think it would be worth finding exercises to rediscover this energy before his next performance.
An outrageously funny show. This is a play that confronts the taboo thoughts surrounding the transgender community through phone sex.
