We all love a Bad Boy right?
Bad Boy Disco CB4 Theatre
Forgive me, Disco Priest, for I have seen…I have never seen an episode of Father Ted.
I know, I know. Aside from ‘Small…Far Away and the knowledge that a baby Graham Norton was in I, I had zero knowledge of the 90s classic. So much, in fact, that my first knowledge of Graham Linehan was when he took on his second career as a raging TERF. That said, I did find one of my tweets posted on his nasty corner of the internet when I…dared to say Trans Women belonged at Pride. So, while I might not be familiar with his early work, I am well acquainted with his most recent output.
Why this little personal story to start a review? Well, because Bad Boy Disco is all about our personal relationships (or at least parasocial relationships) with famous ‘bad boys’. And not that lad from school who thought he was the best thing in grey joggers…actual bad boys, those people we once perhaps looked up to or enjoyed their art and now are on shall we say, questionable second careers like Linehan, or in some case simply on parole.
At the top of the show, Alice says, ‘it’s not that deep’ about the show. And while yes, it is a silly laugh-filled romp through pop culture and our relationship with it, much like pop culture, it might not be that deep, but it also is that deep because it matters to all of us. This relationship with the art we engage with, the people who make it and where our lines in the sand are.
Framed through the CB4 theatre’s love of Father Ted (again, sorry, sorry the references went over my head, but there’s something utterly delightful about people revelling in a shared in-joke that brings them joy, so it didn’t matter). It’s a chaotic interactive show that always stays on the right side of humorous despite the serious subject matter.
I also admit I checked with a fellow reviewer about audience interaction as someone who has a paralysing fear of being asked to give a fun fact about themselves. BUT I will say this had some of the best, inclusive, non-scary audience interaction I’ve seen. That’s how you play with theatrical convention: make it engaging and (pardon the Wicked press tour reference) hold space for people (seriously, the way the sensitive discussions were handled amid the more frivolous was sensitively handled and truly felt like a safe space). I also chose the exact moment an audience member answered ‘Cocaine Bear’ to a question to take a sip of my drink, which nearly resulted in losing said drink.
But there’s a great bit of audience interaction that puts it back on us and makes us think about where we rank various ‘Bad Boys’ of culture from Rolf Harriss to Lizzo to…the Arts Council. Ok, well, we all know where we’d rank the last one (Fund CB4, you cowards). But as the examples showed, sometimes it’s hard to know where we stand. Sometimes, it’s an easy decision- Harriss and P-Puff-Diddy-Coombs were chilling together firmly in the cancelled section. Everyone’s least-favourite-mould-dwelling-TERF-Wizard likewise. But what of Lizzo? Of Bowie? Of Wagner even? There are many a grey area and often, our lines in the sand are different.
And that’s what the show (glittery jackets, dog collar and all) makes us think about. It’s easy sometimes to get caught up in the online discourse, the who did what bad thing. And yes sometimes it’s an easy decision not to engage with that art…for me Father Ted, it’s not something I had any attachment to, so I won’t miss it. But I loved Johnny Depp films with all my weirdo-goth heart as a teenager, and now what? And what about when there’s more nuance? I cannot personally stomach picking up a Neil Gaiman book, but one of my favourite TV shows is Lucifer, based on his characters. On an entirely superficial level (what isn’t) I love Gossip Girl unironically, but is Blake Lively on the verge of ruining that for me? And as the Disco Priests pointed out, Harvey Weinstein made ALL THE FILMS, so what can we do? We can’t avoid pop culture forever. And everyone’s line in the sand will be different.
Why does it matter? The final confession section of the show is the most moving. It’s easy for me to say, ‘I won’t watch Father Ted’ because Father Ted has never been a meaningful part of my life. But if someone told me I couldn’t watch The X-Files because Chris Carter did something awful (aside from awful writing), I’d lose the formative show of my teens. The reason I became a fangirl of so many things. Or if Cerys Matthews were suddenly revealed to be evil I’d lose the band that soundtracked my teens (I never said I was cool gang). As a certified fangirl of many years, this stuff matters, be it music, TV or films or even sports (lord help me as a sports fan I’ve seen enough irredeemable bad boys). Anything we follow with passion becomes part of our lives and forms ourselves. The show illustrates that with friendships formed around Father Ted. I look at my own life, and so many friendships for this total nerd are formed through shared interests- as the Disco Priests say, skipping awkward small talk into something you love. Pop culture, music, TV, whatever it is allows us to bond, holds our hands through the tough times, is a soundtrack or backdrop to moments in our lives and if someone we love and admire in turns out to be a terrible human…it alters not only our relationship with that art but with that moment in our lives.
There’s no answer to this question, no black and white. And unlike a regular Priest the Disco Priests don’t offer a black and white good and evil solution. It’s just up to us to go out there and figure it out as we go…guess that is a bit like organised religion after all.
But this show ends on joy- the joy that is the shared love of something, in spite of it all. And that feels important more than ever. Bad Boy Disco doesn’t shy away from what Lineham and others do; it’s literally there in black and white on the screen at one point. But it also doesn’t let the bad boys have the last word- instead, it returns to the joy that can be still found in what we love, even if the person behind it isn’t someone we’d invite for Disco Communion.
At Porter’s Cardiff until 24th May Tickets here.
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P.S all I could hear in my head writing this was this meme:
