Boy Out The City ★★★★★

The initial announcement of lockdown in March 2020, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, is surely something that is branded into everyone’s memory. For many it was shocking, for some it was actually comforting. For Declan Bennett and his boyfriend, it presented an opportunity to escape the post-apocalyptic landscape of London at that time and set up home in a sleepy village in rural Oxfordshire. An idyllic way to ride out a pandemic – that is until restrictions eased slightly and Declan’s boyfriend, who is also a performer, secured a six month job in the USA. Bennett’s play – Boy Out the City – is the result of those 6 months of pandemic-enforced rural solitude.

Without a job and with a no partner at home, the displacement behaviour of baking banana bread for his elderly neighbour, and writing all those new songs he never got round to, soon fades. Instead, it is replaced with opening bottles of wine ever nearer to midday and spending far too much time with his own thoughts. Memories and emotions, he has long been suppressing, burst to the surface, leaving him to wrangle and try to cope with his Catholic upbringing, being forced to hide his sexuality at school and being diagnosed with cancer in his early 20s. Unsurprisingly, Bennett’s mental health begins to deteriorate as a consequence.

Boy Out the City is a deeply personal recounting of someone having to face their deepest darkest demons and the repercussions these have upon them. However it is not a play without humour or optimism, and the themes it explores certainly resonated with the audience, resulting in a standing ovation at the end of this particular performance.

Anyone who has been on the receiving end of toxic masculinity and homophobic bullying, in particular, will certainly identify with Bennett’s own experiences. The piece is sharply written and directed, and superbly acted by Bennett, with a scene near the end of the piece, where his mental health nosedives, being particularly notable for the excellent way it is interpreted. The production also makes clever use of an appropriately minimalist set, which serves to add to the sense of loneliness and isolation.