Guest Blog: Playwright Shaun Kitchener On ALL THAT at King's Head Theatre

Not that I have a thing for gossip (I do), but I was struck a few years ago by news that one particular sort-of-friend of mine had been relentlessly cheating on his boyfriend of a thousand years, and I'm not sure even now if the boyfriend ever found out.

It's none of my business, obviously, and I have no idea what the wider context of it all was; but what made me mentally scroll through my rolodex of tea-sipping GIFs was the fact that I could have sworn this was the same person who had previously been very - and I mean VERY - disparaging about open relationships among gay men.

So my inner Carrie Bradshaw voice "couldn't help but wonder": why was there such a disconnect between his opinions and his behaviour? Had the notion of an open relationship hit such a nerve with him because he felt so confined in his own partnership? Were he and his boyfriend in an open relationship all along but didn't want to let on? Or for some Christ-knows-what reason did he just prefer to give his boyfriend a false sense of fidelity?

That was essentially what sparked the idea for All That - a play that only semi-coincidentally shares its name with a Carly Rae Jepsen slowbanger (look it up). It's a comedy-drama about a monogamous couple and an open couple living side-by-side under one roof, leading to preconceptions being challenged, loyalties being tested and - shock twist! - boundaries being broken.

See, I've realised over the past couple of years that views on monogamy vary wildly among gay men: bring up the idea of open relationships, and you could get anything from casual slut-shaming to pure bafflement.

But they're much more common than you might think: in 2016, a study by FS of roughly 1,000 gay men found that 41% had experience, either in the past or present, of being in an open relationship, with 74% of that amount saying it was a "mutual decision between both partners".

But a third of men with no experience in that department agreed with the idea that "open relationships are not real relationships", and you only have to look at the replies on Facebook or Twitter to an article on the subject to see how divisive it all is.

My fiancé and I are monogamous, but I know several people with open arrangements and the thought would never even occur to me that their bond is somehow less valid or their relationship not even "real". In some cases, they're among the most rock-solid couples I know.

So in All That - a one-act play heading to the King's Head Theatre for their Queer Season this month - I'm looking at attitudes to monogamy; not as an advert for or against, but as an exploration of the complexities of gay romance in 2018.

Each couple has their own conflicts: the open couple disagrees on whether straying men in monogamous relationships should be off-limits or not, while there's underlying tension with the other couple around their 'conventional' ten-year journey from teenage sweethearts to engagement and marriage.

This won't be the play's first outing; it had a self-produced (read: zero-budget) showcase at the Lion and Unicorn Theatre last year to a very enthusiastic response, and it was fascinating hearing everyone's surprisingly varied opinions on each character. It's an interesting watch for straight audiences, too, I think - especially as, for many, this is completely new territory.

Now, after some script improvements and the arrival of a new director, producer and designer, I think a notoriously LGBT-championing venue like the King's Head will be the perfect home for it. Queer representation on stage has, obviously, got much better in recent years, but I'm a big fan of works that are starting to deep-dive into the more intricate issues within the community.

So here I am, trying to do just that - with bonus funny bits...

All That is at King's Head Theatre 21-25 August

To post a comment, you must register and login.