Nothing good usually results from having your drink spiked, but the winner of the Queensland Premier’s Drama Award 2008-09 found inspiration for his play after an encounter in a gay club.
Royal talent: playwright Richard Jordan outside the Royal Court Theatre in London.
Chosen out of a field of 68 plays, Richard Jordan’s 25 Down will be produced by the Queensland Theatre Company as part of its 2009 season.
The play looks at the downward spiral of 25-year-old artist James, whose life takes a turn for the worse when he starts posing for online sex photos. James’ older flatmate disapproves, setting the stage for a generational conflict between the gay campaigner of the past and the hedonistic boy of the present.
The play had its genesis after Jordan, 26, had his drink spiked in an encounter with a forty-something man in a gay club.
“He was trying to come on to me, he said he’d been stood up by a kid after meeting him online. I wasn’t interested and he was so resentful. I’m pretty sure he was the one who spiked my drink.”
After being rescued by his flatmates, Jordan pondered exactly why he thought the older man – in a club filled with men – was the culprit: “I found it interesting, that I thought immediately that it was him.”
“I think a lot of younger guys have some awful perceptions of older gay men. But I think that’s a scene thing. When people get to know each other, these [perceptions] float away.”
In the play, says Jordan, James’ older flatmate “feels like [James] is throwing his life away”.
“He protested for gay rights in the seventies and he feels like the younger man is devaluing himself.”
In April, Jordan returned from London after attending a course for emerging playwrights at the Royal Court Theatre. His short plays have been produced at The Dogstar and Oval theatres in London and his first full-length play like, dead premiered in April 2005.
Show/Hide comments
Show/Hide comment form
