Is it a fowl? Is it a aircraft? Is it a pigeon? No, it’s the superhero Stallion, in a tatty do-it-yourself masks that's removed from equine. As Horse-Play begins, he's imprisoned in a subterranean lair by Villainor, having been lured there by the kidnapping of Butterfly, his trusty sidekick. “He’s superb, isn’t he?” notes Butterfly from the torture desk when Villainor pops out. “He should be, the quantity I’m paying him,” snorts Stallion.
That is really Tim (David Ames) and Tom (Jake Maskall), a married couple spicing up their intercourse life with cosplay. However when an accident leaves them trapped within the dungeon with Villainor, AKA Karl (Matt Lapinskas), the stage is about for some homo-truths to be confronted.
What emerges is positively decorous. Tom, it transpires, has a penchant for string vests; Tim as soon as blabbed about his husband’s piles. In a present with not a lot to say, it’s a disgrace the gags don’t take the roof off. There’s a vaguely naughty Downton Abbey line however comedy of a pricklier stripe may need been discovered by exploring Tom’s subservience to his youthful, prettier companion, whose wants dominate their marriage, or the flash of socio-economic privilege when Tim snaps at Karl: “We purchased you!” As an alternative, Tim apologises. No hurt carried out.
That’s the issue: nothing of any consequence happens. A rummage by Villainor’s accoutrements (grownup diapers, flavoured lube) is as amusing as a grocery store stocktake. Pluses embody Lapinskas, who will get funnier the extra his former dominance crumbles, and Stephanie Siadatan, injecting vitality as a sort of deus intercourse machina.
Whereas it’s no dangerous factor for Horse-Play to occupy a lighter register than Tom Wright’s excellent Very Particular Visitor Star, which additionally confirmed a homosexual couple looking for sexual rejuvenation, Ian Hallard’s script by no means will get round to manufacturing rigidity, comedian or in any other case. Tim and Tom bicker sweetly initially of the present, and so they’re nonetheless doing it by the tip. This might be a sly touch upon calcified marriages however as materials it’s near moribund, even when the effervescence of Andrew Beckett’s path saves it from being outright torture.
At Riverside Studios, London, till 24 September.
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