Above: Fraser Morrison in call-centre character mode. Featured: Fraser as Mikey in the midst of retelling his tale of surviving the 1980s in Soho. Photo credit- Abraham de Souza.
On the eve of Mardi Gras Fair Day 2025 Fruit Box Theatre has brought another opening night thought-provoking entertainment into our queer world-as an Australian premiere.
Fruit Box Theatre continues its important mission of unearthing new and recent queer stories to strengthen our current community. This piece by queer UK actor and writer Jack Holden is electricity-with-an-illuminating-message, magnificent here in the warm, infant KXT on Broadway/ bAKEHOUSE Theatre space.
The take-home from the compelling play is that history hurts, but the sharing of it heals. LGBTQIA+ support call centre operator Jack, in his woke post-Covid world, gets stuck on a call with a veteran of the HIV/AIDS era that changes the colour of his rainbow day.
Jack Holden’s vivid play, so rich in character and rapid-fire poetry, was first performed in London’s West End after the modern virus of 2021. It is an epic romp and journey through the life of an HIV positive youth making his way through the hedonism, behind-closed-door gay life of Soho in the 1980s, soon to have its rainbow burnt with the flare of fabulous lives lost.
History that is boring is never attractive to learn. This production uses attractive techniques to teach of a gruelling time past. In its current Down Under Mardi Gras packaging from director Sean Landis and talented team of creatives plus community and health sector consultants, Holden’s piece shines and touches us deeply. It sets the time period solidly, accurately, heart-wrenchingly and lets our learning or refreshing of the era through Mikey’s support line rant come to life with a cracking, colourful and well-crafted pace.
Above: Fraser Morrison tell-it-how-it-is drag queen mode. Phot credit: Abraham de Souza.
Effective lighting of the set exists as the action ricochets off several compass points or props around the space flanked by audience. These props or set elements represent external and internal spaces in Mikey’s world, stages of his Soho adventure and eventually the pathways for defying death during his HIV journey by going out and working as a DJ.
There is brilliant movement across this stage network, with Holden’s word-rich script supplying radical rhyming-couplet spot shows at times in the shifting locales depicted. Well-placed sound effects and period music also make the tale real.
As well as the sounds of Soho streets, bars, flats, no songline of life and death and virus struggle from the 80s would be complete without music and dance. The history of house music and DJs as kings and queens of queer hedonism heading toward techno is a keen sub-story here, with the careers and the passion of 80s music lovers like Mikey being lucidly presented here.
Steering the main history tutorial by jumping from call centre support line volunteer into the 80s and portraying dozens of characters throughout the riveting 90-minute romp is actor Fraser Morrison. This West End boy is on total fire! He negotiates the space, and the litany of recurring and fleeting character appearances with endless energy and accent variation. He is a natural theatre player, operating here with a huge heart that has us slowly nodding inside at what it was to be gay back then. infected and gay and not supported back then.
Morrison’s agile craft jam-packed with subtle details epitomises the fun-hungry, desperate and lost charater sans obvious support network save for colourful friends that have seen their world turning and have toughened up. It is a special lesson to see a crazy time where the 360-degrees style of support we are starting to enjoy in a modern queer world today was savagely absent.
Above: Fraser Morrison on a Soho dancefloor. Photo credit: Abraham de Souza.
This adept character actor/ dancer/singer starts as the nervous gay support line worker and the morphs into Mikey, fledgeling gay on the ruthless, slightly underground scene. We see him switch back and forth to illustrate his friends network or the characters out and about in Soho. This includes him morphing seamlessly into a mysterious, maybe-widowed alcoholic landlady, bitchy slutty housemates, his own karaoke-loving promiscuous boyfriend, an ageing drag queen, a queer club hostess amongst other faces in the dying crowd.
These personas show the full life of gay men battling a virus and vile indifference surrounding them in society and the slow-to help medical care. This is hard history to watch, foreign to us now, having seen Covid years saturated with medical care and communication.
This re-enactment and Morrisson’s Mikey blasts home the helplessness of those newly diagnosed with HIV/AIDS during the 1980s. We see the peculiar energy that pushed the dying into partying harder, experimenting with health or lifestyle hacks plus frustration at accessing limited resources. And they pledged to keep on or push through predicament with boldness of nature and reluctance to give up as individuals or as a community.
In addition to demonstrating an amazing physicality, and quick-change fluidity as each character appears, Fraser Morrison produces a killer vocal – a love song crooning moment in the karaoke bar scene. His portrayal in tired wig of an ageing drag queen’s acerbic anthem is also a breathtakingly good performance full of fine detail and timing.
Above: Fraser Morrison as Mikey. Photo credit: Abraham de Souza.
As clearly indicated in this excellent re-enactment of Mikey’s hectic journey through life in this well-managed stage portrayal, the eighties were an exhausting but vibrant time. A time which spurned greater activism and hope and has led through to community and general public bravery, greater awareness and acceptance in our current time.
This clever play, well selected in Mardi Gras production to resonate with Fruit Box Theatre’s goals is an edge-of-the-seat theatrical and community event. It will remind local and visiting audience what is was like to be queer in Covid remembering the past gay pandemic. It will help vividly picture the qualities of perseverance that began in the 1980s and have grown to help queer communities thrive and defend themselves today. And it will show Mardi Gras audiences the excellent, active queer theatre environment in their own city or the Sydney they will visit during Mardi Gras.
Jack Holden’s play is also an instrument for a capable actor to express their range, their physicality and relish the chance to have their role in a major new piece ably supported in a world-class production. The instant standing ovation at this KXT opening showed the audience’s appreciation of all of the above in this moving, memorable piece.
This ovation for Fraser Morrison and all involved in bringing this energy to life demonstrated Cruise’s sobering no-holds-barred fabulousness has been successfully transported to Sydney.
To be seen by the lucky ones, a tale told to teach new sons.
We thank Fruit Box Theatre for this newest nourishment.
Cruise plays at KXT on Broadway until February until sat Feb 22. Book now on
https://www.kingsxtheatre.com/cruise
