“Shit!” says Nathaniel Hall as people take their seats at Oxford’s North Wall, having already seen the performer’s legs and feet poking out from under a duvet. “Talk amongst yourselves,” he suggests, hurriedly trying to tidy up last night’s party. He calls out to technical manager Joel Clements, “Can we get some music on? Loosen this lot up a bit.” Wham!’s ‘Club Tropicana’ plays and he finds a baggie left behind by a partygoer, which he dips into – “Be rude not to…”
We listen to the drug-fuelled figure talk old condoms and kangaroo vaginas for a bit, then there’s a boom and he’s captured by a spotlight, his voiceover sounds: “This is not me at my best, folks.” What follows is the story of how he got HIV, its often frightening impact on his mental health, and his mission to educate people about it.
In the early stages we witness toy babies and silly string representing vomit and diarrhoea. Later, the actor captivatingly swallows pills topped with powder out of a cereal bowl, and the audience join him in a candlelit vigil remembering the 35 million people who have died from AIDS and standing in solidarity with the 38 million people who live with HIV. One of the production’s most moving parts is possibly its simplest: a list of things that happened after Hall’s diagnosis. In no particular order, it includes “I went to university and got a degree in theatre and performance”, “my sister developed epilepsy” and, a number of times, “I tried to tell Mum and Dad.”
Phil Collins also crops up in this part – scenario: sex with Phil Collins using a condom – coincidentally, Steve Hackett Genesis Revisited was playing Oxford’s New Theatre the same night.