Writers: Nat Neri and Caolon McGinley
Director: Nat Neri
At the tail end of the 19th century, Oscar Wilde’s decision to sue the Marquess of Queensberry – who had described him as a sodomite – for libel ultimately became the playwright’s undoing. Queensberry’s defence involved proving that Wilde had multiple relationships with men, causing him to be prosecuted, charged and imprisoned.
In The Homosexual’s Guide to the Galaxy, the trial is commented on by the Wilde-like aesthete Jonathan (Rain Reid) and his neighbour, vicar’s son David (Caolon McGinley). Through their conversation, they reveal their affection for one another, but although there is a romantic edge to their talk, McGinley and Nat Neri’s script aims sharply for the comedically satirical. The comic dialogue sits rather better in the mouth of Reid’s confident Jonathan, but both actors provide plenty of laughs – as do some props, most notably a pair of ridiculously oversized newspapers mocking the then size of the broadsheet press.
Scenes between the pair alternate with a contrasting couple in the far future, with McGinley playing Avi, a space engineer who embarks on an affair with galaxy-hopping alien Atha (Reid), a relationship he knows his human colony will frown upon. It’s a fun way to place a metaphorical lens on taboo relationships, mirroring the anti-queer Victorian era with a futuristic inter-species one. It also allows the script to have fun with references to Doctor Who, and especially Douglas Adams’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, to which this play’s title finally earns its nod.
Unfortunately, the setup required for each change between Victorian England and the far future plunges the stage into darkness between scenes for lengths that destroy the comedy’s momentum. One of the joys of comedies predicated on actors’ multi-roling is the craft of the quick change, especially when scenes call for two characters played by the same actor to interact. There is none of that here, which dampens the humour somewhat.
The script also tends to be patchy, with several comedic punchlines lacking weight, and each scene trailing off before another interminable wait in darkness for the next.
Coming in at under an hour, even when counting those gaps, the effect is to feel like The Homosexual’s Guide to the Galaxy is more underpowered than it either is or deserves to be. The germ of the idea is great and fun, but it needs much more content within.
Runs until 27 April 2026
