Every now and then, a play comes along that reminds you of what good theatre is capable of: telling a story that exposes the truths of our society (the good, the bad and the ugly), that helps us to see ourselves and others with greater clarity and compassion and – better yet – keep us on the edge of our seats until the very end. Arriving at Sydney’s Belvoir St Theatre following its debut with Melbourne Theatre Company, Declan Furber Gillick’s Jacky is one of those plays. Rumbling with an undercurrent of honesty and authenticity, this unassumingly clever and comedically raw drama will stay with you long after you drift out of the theatre.
Guy Simon (Holding the Man) reprises his role as Jacky, a smart young bloke who seems to be really finding his feet amongst the hustle and bustle of city life in Melbourne. As he juggles an internship with the uncertainty of the gig economy, his side-hustle as a sex worker is a pretty unbeatable way to pay the bills, and even get a leg up on the property ladder (and after all, he’s good at it). But when his unemployable younger brother Keith (Danny Howard, who makes an impressive Belvoir debut) arrives in town, Jacky’s worlds collide. Negotiating the boundaries of work life, personal life, politics and culture can be tricky enough – let alone if you’re a (closeted) Queer, Aboriginal man with a loud, nosy sibling crashing on your couch.
The cast is rounded out by Greg Stone (August: Osage County) and Mandy McElhinney (Tiny Beautiful Things, STC’s No Pay? No Way! – and yes, she is the Rhonda from those AAMI insurance ads). Each actor gives it their all, deftly swinging between uproarious moments of impeccable comedic timing to explosions of rage, utter emotional nakedness and back under the eye of Melbourne-based director Mark Wilson. All in all, it's a fairly no-frills production, but it is the perfect foil for a clever, naturalistic script.
Jacky is a profoundly honest and essential story that I hope will be seen by many more Australians
As micro-aggressions make way for outright aggressive displays of racism, internalised homophobia, and whorephobia, we witness Jacky reckon with tough decisions about how much of himself he is willing to sell to the highest bidder (and no, we’re not talking about his body). On the flip side, the writing also gifts us with some simple, glimmering moments of love and acceptance. This play deals in real-world stakes and it has a definite point of view – and yet, for want of a more nuanced way to put it, it never beats the audience over the head with its message.
A fellow audience member, who chooses to remain anonymous, shared with me that he could relate to Jacky on multiple levels, and described how refreshing, validating and also heartbreaking it was to witness scenes that could have been ripped from his own life. He says: “As a Queer Blak sex worker, it was really refreshing to see positive representation of both my culture and my job. I really liked that Jacky’s work as a sex worker wasn’t stigmatised in any way and also wasn’t shown as something done out of trauma or desperation, which is the story we so often see. I also really liked that his identity as a gay man was accepted without question, that’s how our mob are with sexuality and gender diversity, we’ve always been a very inclusive culture. It was just really wonderful to see these issues portrayed appropriately.”
A delightfully tight production that wraps up in a neat 1-hour and 40-minutes (no interval), the action gallops from one corner of Jacky’s life to the next, as each neatly-segmented area begins to crash into one another, building up to a spectacular rupture. But when the precarious foundations of the life he has built for himself begin to crumble, will Jacky totally lose the plot? Or, will he see the shallow, advantageous world he’s playing in for its ugly truth?
Jacky is a profoundly honest and essential story that I hope will be seen by many more Australians, and a screen adaptation would probably be an excellent vehicle for that. However, if you get the chance to see it on stage, do yourself the favour – nothing can compare to the experience of being one with an audience as you laugh, gasp, and swear under your breath while the drama unfolds.
Jacky is playing at Belvoir St Theatre, Surry Hills, until February 2. This show is presented as part of Sydney Festival’s Blak Out program. Get tickets over here.