Sex Sex Men Men opens with a warning to the audience that they are about to embark on a “deep plunge into male sexuality”, which will “lovingly and lastingly push your boundaries”. This, and so much more, is what you get in this daring, hilarious and label-defying performance by Pecs Drag Kings.
Pecs Drag Kings are an all-female or non-binary theatre company and drag collective. Following the acclaimed 80s Show at the Soho Theatre last year, they are back at the Yard Theatre in Hackney Wick, continuing to question gender binaries and audience’s perceptions.
Sex Sex Men Men, directed by Celine Lowenthal and Temi Wilkey – who also plays the dazzling all-singing all-dancing “Drag King Cole” – claims to be able to take the audience through all the many forms of masculinity in an hour and a half. And they manage it with flair.
In keeping with traditional drag productions, the piece is structured into individual acts and group performances, interspersed with witty commentary from the show’s host “Cesar Jentley”, a role carried with confidence by Kit Griffiths in a top hat and drawn-on beard.
In front of a backdrop of pink plastic curtains and glittery streamers and under a hanging disco ball, we see masculinity pushed to its limit. We have an ultra-masculine group workout routine to LMFAO’s “Sexy and I Know It”, a Magic Mike-esque strip show and a tender duet between two lovers.
Sex and desire are the centre of the action from the get-go and no preference or fetish is off limits. Lauren Steele gives a standout performance as “Thrustin’ Limbersnake” in a thoroughly messy food-play scene which finds many innovative uses for ketchup and baked beans.
But these self-defined “iconic drag princes” stretch cabaret to its limits, using it to make relevant, and at times truly shocking, observations about the state of masculinity in the 21st century.
In one hilarious and cutting commentary of masculine power, “John Travulva”, played by Jodie Mitchell, gives a lecture about the history of patriarchal power struggles and gendered sexual roles while receiving oral sex.
Later in the show, the depiction of patriarchal power takes on a truly threatening presence in the emblem of dangerous and toxic masculinity, “Mr Goldenballs”. He is introduced with an eerie reference to the American Psycho morning routine scene and enacts violent sex acts with a dress before brutally smashing a watermelon to pieces with a golf club.
This is not just shocking for the sake of it, but rather a smart exploration of society’s attitudes towards men and masculinity and issues of sexual violence are dealt with with the utmost care; audience members invited to leave the theatre if they feel uncomfortable at any stage.
The show manages to be just the right amount of critical without mocking men or presenting them as one-dimensional. Adding to this the fact that monologues written by real men are read verbatim throughout the show from online forums, there feels as if there is a real validity behind the characters being presented.
The final monologue – a moment of quieter introspection performed with brilliant subtlety by Rosie Potts – tells the story of a man who had just one gay experience with his best friend when he was 18 and hasn’t had any others since. This final quiet celebration of queerness reminds us that sexuality and masculinity take all kinds of forms. At the end of this riotous and thoroughly enjoyable show, this is the message that shines through.
Check out more on Hackney Post Arts section.
