From Lonely to OnlyFans
There were two reasons why I wanted to see Bren Gosling’s Invisible Me. One, because it’s three lonely people looking for love and companionship in their 60s, and I thought I might be able to get a few tips… And two, because the cast is made up of three TV regulars who are on stage showing that they are very adept at doing it in one take, writes Michael Holland.
Lynn (Tessa Peake-Jones) cleans rooms at a Travelodge and little else since her husband walked out eight years ago; Alec (Kevin N Golding), a black cabbie, divorced and estranged and quite full of himself, and Jack (James Holmes), a newly-widowed HIV-positive gay man, make up the third of the strangers.
All three are on stage throughout the performance, monologuing their stories that Director Scott Le Crass weaves in and around each other. Slowly, we see their separate lives crossover, pass each other in the local area, eventually meet by accident in cafés and streets and finally coming together to create a friendship and company for each other as they take to the dance floor.
To get to that point, we take a ride through Lynn finding Stella, a dominatrix, still in a hotel room that she should have vacated earlier. She eyes Lynn up and down and tells her, ‘You’re sitting on a winner there, Darling… You could earn good money – all on your terms,’ before giving Lynn a £50 tip and her business card, and then flouncing out.
Jack goes down the dating app route that he manages to negotiate a ‘date’ with, which causes a lot of anxiety and a meltdown in public, which is where Lynn offers a tissue for the tears.
Alec has shared smiles with a much younger Vanessa in a café, that quickly leads to a daytime quickie and future hopes for the lucky cab driver, except Vanessa was her own woman who took what she wanted on her terms.
Their journeys are both poignant and comical and leave people of a certain age with hope – as long as they are willing to dance like no one is watching at the over-50s disco, have Grindr meets with strangers, or dress up appropriately to administer Victorian Correction.
I think I’ll sit that route out…
Line of the night: ‘I went from being lonely to OnlyFans!’
Very much worth getting a ticket for this beautifully performed play.
Southwark Playhouse until May 2nd.
Booing and full details: https://southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/productions/invisible-me/
