You could be forgiven for thinking that Richard Fry’s first few lines as he arrives on stage are actually just Richard Fry, the playwright, saying a quick ‘thanks for coming’ to his audience as he explains that this is a subject close to his heart. But as he continues after picking up a worn notebook with the scribbled title ‘The Ballad of the Unbeatable Hearts’ on the front, you begin to realise that you’re already watching his performance.
But this clearly, really is a subject close to Fry’s heart. Without knowing any of the background to this piece or it’s writer, you cannot leave the theatre without feeling like you just watched a man’s heart break on stage.
Spoken entirely in rhyming couplets, Fry begins to tell you the story of John Wayne (not the cowboy), a gay suicide survivor, who hits rock bottom when he throws himself in front of a bus, but survives and goes on to do incredible things. Almost by accident, John finds himself climbing mountains, and finally founding The Unbeatable Hearts – a support group and charity foundation for young, at-risk gay people. They spread love and awareness, happiness and joy everywhere they go, this “Battalion of Benders,” and grow to become a global sign of hope.
This show has a good, heartfelt message at it’s core, although Fry’s rhyming monologue sometimes feels a little too in rhythm and flat to bring out the full spectrum of emotion the story really deserves. But then it is hard, when speaking in rhyming couplets, not to read them in time to some imaginary bouncing ball.
But forgiving that, this is a show designed to tug at your heartstrings, and it works. You may find yourself laughing through watery eyes at the ‘fat gay loser’s’ jokes, or sitting a little taller as Fry tells you that ‘it’s never too late to start your journey to death’ (his darker version of the more commonly used ‘never too late to start living’). You may shake your head in shame as you hear about how many gay people commit suicide every year. Or you may not feel anything until the end, and the tragic reality of this fictional tale.
As Fry ends the story of John Wayne with tears in his eyes and a trembling throat, you may again start to think this is all a little too much over acting, until it’s over, and Fry is taking his bow, and the tears are still falling.
