Writer Benjamin Nichol continues his incendiary anthology series of plays with the double bill Milk and Blood. Each 70 minutes in duration, they concern the trials and tribulations of a single mother and a gay escort. Both are hard hitting and powerful monologues, presenting snippets of the lives of characters simply called Mummy (in Milk) and Daddy (in Blood).
Mummy is a single mother to two children – one named Boy, she had when she was 17, and the other Doug, many years later, to another man. Her parents were cold and distant, but she is not. She is loving and big hearted. Her father is no longer alive and she has always had a prickly relationship with her mother. Mummy likes music and loves to dance, especially to John Farnham’s Two Strong Hearts. A smoker, she works in disability and always looks for silver linings.
Each Sunday, with Doug in tow, she visits Boy, now aged 19 – about whom she speaks glowingly – in prison and tells him about the week that was. The reason Boy was jailed is a key plot point that at a juncture sees a shift in Mummy’s demeanour. While usually warm and caring, she also has a harsher side. Boy and Doug are very different (Doug is introspective and bookish), but Boy encourages Doug to keep studying. Then, one night, while out dancing, Mummy meets a new man, Billy.
Performer and co-director Brigid Gallacher has done a mighty job with Milk. She is nuanced and compelling. She frequently shifts gears and takes us on a journey of discovery, giving us real insight into the various phases of Mummy’s life and her reality check. We are with her all the way, through the difficulties and anguish – love being the driving force, even as doubt creeps in.
Daddy is confident, self-assured and good at his job as a dominant in the sex industry. He is experienced and respected. He makes time to teach and has taken under his wing a hot headed, sensitive 21-year-old, called Pup, who lives with him. Daddy has a strong friendship group of like-minded individuals. He keeps himself in shape by going to the gym regularly, at the same time each day. He lives a neat, tidy and orderly existence and takes pride in his home. Daddy’s sexual awakening came through an older man named Joe, whom he hasn’t seen in years, but now Joe is messaging him relentlessly.
Daddy’s confidence is shaken by an ugly, violent confrontation with a group of school students, one in particular, known as Strong Boy, that he first saw at the gym. He struggles to make sense of it and his world implodes. He starts engaging in risky behaviour. He seeks pain. With strength and conviction, performer and co-director Charles Purcell opens up the fraught side of the gay world, its dangers and insecurities. I found Blood more exploratory in nature as it progressed. It looks at the concept of queer actualisation. While unmistakably potent, Purcell drops the occasional word.
What helps make Nichol’s work so forceful is his cadence and gritty narrative. It was so with his previous double header, kersone and SIRENS, and so it is here. I greatly admire the uncompromising nature of his writing. Neither Gallacher nor Purcel have anywhere to hide. It is just them, fully exposed (figuratively) on a bare stage, with lighting design by Harrie Hogan and sound design by Connor Ross. Milk and Blood are dramatic, episodic, emotional, slice of life pieces, which offer no beg pardons. The two hander is on at fortyfivedownstairs until 1st September, 2024.
Alex First
Other reviews you might enjoy:
- The Inheritance (fortyfivedownstairs) – theatre review
- Colder (Red Stitch) – theatre review
- Mother (Arts Centre Melbourne) – theatre review
Alex First is a Melbourne based journalist and communications specialist. He contributes to The Blurb on film and theatre.