‘How do you come out as straight?’ Dan Student asks the early evening audience at Fingers Piano Bar. With difficulty, apparently. How do you make a show about your sex history relevant to your audience? With difficulty, apparently.
The three performers in Overexposed all seem friendly, interesting folk and as such this free show is an inoffensive way to pass an hour. But quite what they are aiming for is uncertain. It’s not exactly comedy and most of Student’s jokes are intended for an American audience anyway; it’s not exactly a lecture, it’s too inconsequential; it’s not remotely theatre, though all three are actors and there are elements of theatricality, especially in Jen MacMillan’s set which ended the show.
Of the three monologues, MacMillan’s was certainly the most entertaining. Hers was a performance and at times very funny, despite the touching ending about how holding hands with someone you love is better than sleeping with someone you don’t. It was unclear how she arrived there though and it wasn’t quite believable.
It is nothing we haven’t heard before. All three offer encouragement to people confused by their sexuality but in an unoriginal way and one that makes them come across as sorry for themselves. Jamie Foreman begins with a nice build-up to talking about titles and self-identity but his speech is too predictable: ‘I’m not straight, or gay, or bi. I’m Jamie’. The show promises ‘remarkably revealing storytelling’ but the revelations, such as they were, seemed gratuitous.
There are some entertaining moments here but it feels like being talked at by a friend in the pub about his issues. If you’re tired of said friend, however, this affable trio would provide a reasonable alternative.
