• Send us Mail
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Join our Facebook Group
  • Subscribe to our RSS Feed
  • Search Site

Polari Magazine

  • Home
  • Up Front
    • Editorial
    • Clementine: The Living Fashion Doll
    • Polari Safari
    • WTF? Friday
    • Bulletin Board
    • Polari Facts
  • Features
    • Interviews
    • Features
    • Gallery
    • Opinion
    • Heroes & Villains
  • Community
    • Oral Histories
    • Coming Out Stories
    • Relationships
    • IDAHO
    • LGBT History Month
    • Blogs
  • Reviews
    • Books
    • Film and Television
    • Music
    • Stage
    • Visual Arts
    • Classics: Books
    • Classics: Film and Television
    • Classics: Music
  • About
    • About Polari Magazine
    • Contributors
    • Contact

You are here: Polari Magazine / Stage / Odd Shaped Balls

Odd Shaped Balls

★★★★★
Dir: Charlotte Chinn
60 min • Etcetera Theatre, London • From September 18-20, 2014
Laura Macdougall reviews
………………………………………………………………………………………….

Sexuality in sport is still something of a taboo. Last year, in a controversial move, the charity Stonewall teamed up with bookmaker Paddy Power in their #RainbowLaces campaign designed to combat homophobia in sport, particularly in football. There are still no openly gay or bisexual professional male footballers in the UK. There hasn’t been one since Justin Fashanu who came out in 1990.

The situation is similar in men’s rugby, where there is also no out gay or bisexual player. Gareth Thomas, the Welsh international who came out in 2009, spoke not only of his struggle to come to terms with his sexuality, but also his surprise at his teammates’ reaction when he told them; they simply didn’t care. So why has no one else followed Thomas’ example? Statistically it’s unlikely that all other professional rugby players are straight.

In Edinburgh last month I saw a brilliant new one-man play which is based on Thomas’ coming out experience. Written by Richard Sheridan and performed by his brother, Chris, Odd Shaped Balls examines what it might be like for a professional sportsman, married , conventionally ‘masculine’ (in the Daily Mail’s sense of the word) to come out in the 21st Century, in the media spotlight, instant news and the ravenous hunger of social media.

Chris Sheridan plays James Hall, a star player with England prospects. He is married, but he’s been having an affair with a man. Writer Richard intelligently explores the pressure Hall is under as he passes each day in ‘fear’ and ‘suspicion’ – fear of what his family, teammates, coach and the wider world would think if they knew what he was hiding (he never thought that being a gay sportsman was an ‘option’). But Sheridan’s script is not one-note, and is not only bleak, though sport has much to answer for in that players still don’t feel able to be open about their sexuality. There are many moments of humour (Hall was robbed of his ‘Tom Daley moment’); the competitive, testosterone-fuelled atmosphere is brilliantly captured, as are the poignant moments between Hall and his loved ones; the therapeutic and addictive nature of sport is also something that is appreciated and explored.

Sheridan is also careful to keep the play even-handed, exploring all the varied reactions to Hall’s coming out, from the often surprisingly supportive to the many vile, homophobic reactions (usually voiced on Twitter). The media, however, comes off badly, as they all want a piece of Hall, and, because he was outed on a blog by his lover, he wasn’t able to break the news ‘on his own terms’.

Chris Sheridan gives a brilliant performance, not only as Hall but also as Hall’s wife, coach, various teammates, parents and lover. He moves smoothly between roles, switching accents and physicality, changing the look in his eyes. Some of the other roles feel a little thinly drawn in comparison to Hall, whom Richard Sheridan has written with insight not only into someone struggling with their sexuality but also as someone to whom their sport is just as important a part of who they are. Chris Sheridan captures this brilliantly, particularly in one tense scene that takes place during a game where the pressure is simply overwhelming and he spectacularly implodes.

Odd Shaped Balls packs a lot into a show that is only sixty minutes long. It is not just a ‘coming out story’, though it does offer a nuanced, informed and well thought-out portrait of what it might be like for professional sportsmen worrying about whether to publicly acknowledge their sexuality, and the varied reactions they might expect. Odd Shaped Balls also looks into the psychology of sport, the psychology of masculinity and heterosexuality and how our society conceives and constructs these ideas. It also considers our use of language, not only homophobic language but also society’s construct of the ‘fairytale’ of love, and how it can be damaging and misleading.

For all of our society’s recent legislative progress, Odd Shaped Balls reminds us that legislation can’t change people’s attitudes. Sometimes those attitudes might pleasantly surprise us, but all too often they confirm our worst fears about other people and how a single word can have devastating consequences.

—

Odd Shaped Balls is playing at the Etcetera Theatre, Camden, from 18-20 September. Click here for more information.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest

Search Polari

Latest Posts

  • Polari Magazine 2008-2014December 3, 2014 - 6:16 pm
  • Tearing Up Their Map: An Interview with LambDecember 2, 2014 - 2:45 pm
  • Future Islands • GigDecember 2, 2014 - 1:41 pm
  • Puppets with Attitude (at Christmas)December 1, 2014 - 6:30 pm
  • The Aesthetic of Voyeurism: Interview with Antonio Da SilvaDecember 1, 2014 - 1:25 pm
  • Broke With Expensive Taste • Azealia BanksNovember 28, 2014 - 3:59 pm
  • Royalty Strutting on an American College Stage: Miss and Mr. Gay ISU 2014November 27, 2014 - 2:59 pm
  • Bright Light Bright Light: Everything I Ever WantedNovember 26, 2014 - 11:15 am
  • Jaime Nanci And The Blueboys: ‘Toy’ TalkNovember 25, 2014 - 4:09 pm

About Polari Magazine

Polari Magazine is an LGBT arts and culture magazine that explores the subculture by looking at what is important to the people who are in it. It’s about the lives we lead, not the lifestyles we’re supposed to lead.

Its content is informed & insightful, and features a diverse range of writers from every section of the community. Its intent is to help LGBT readers learn about their own heritage and to sustain a link between the present and the past.

Polari is designed to nurture the idea of community, whether that be social and political, or artistic and creative. It is your magazine, whether you want to read it, or whether you want to get involved in it, if you're gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, or queer.

Polari Magazine is all these: it's a gay online magazine; it's a gay and lesbian online magazine; it's an LGBT arts and culture magazine. Ultimately, it is a queer magazine.

Latest Posts

  • Polari Magazine 2008-2014December 3, 2014 - 6:16 pm
  • Tearing Up Their Map: An Interview with LambDecember 2, 2014 - 2:45 pm
  • Future Islands • GigDecember 2, 2014 - 1:41 pm
  • Puppets with Attitude (at Christmas)December 1, 2014 - 6:30 pm
  • The Aesthetic of Voyeurism: Interview with Antonio Da SilvaDecember 1, 2014 - 1:25 pm
  • Broke With Expensive Taste • Azealia BanksNovember 28, 2014 - 3:59 pm
  • Royalty Strutting on an American College Stage: Miss and Mr. Gay ISU 2014November 27, 2014 - 2:59 pm
  • Bright Light Bright Light: Everything I Ever WantedNovember 26, 2014 - 11:15 am
  • Jaime Nanci And The Blueboys: ‘Toy’ TalkNovember 25, 2014 - 4:09 pm

Twitter

Tweets by @PolariMagazine

Archive

  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • July 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • May 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
© Copyright - Polari Magazine - Wordpress Theme by Kriesi.at
  • scroll to top
  • Send us Mail
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Join our Facebook Group
  • Subscribe to our RSS Feed
Website Privacy & Cookies