Radiant Boy at Southwark Playhouse Borough Review
Stuart Thompson in Radiant Boy. Photo by Olivia Spencer
Written by Bronagh for Theatre & Tonic
Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in exchange for an honest review
Content warnings: moments of horror involving blood, scenes of emotional distress and coercion, themes of homophobia and gender dysphoria.
Radiant Boy promises richly formed characters with effortlessly real dialogue… and music including North East folk and 80’s New Wave. A horror with musical elements? Set in the North East of England? As a northerner, sign me up. We enter The Little in Southwark Playhouse Borough, the seats in a horseshoe shape surrounding the stage, which is enclosed in a net curtain-type structure. We can make out a living room set up, and the silhouette of Russell (Stuart Thompson). The curtain falls within minutes, and we are transported to 1983 North East England, where snow is falling and a noticeable chill is in the air.
Radiant Boy covers Russell’s return to the North East from London, where we learn he is at a music academy. There has been an incident, the nature of which is not clear to us as an audience, and Russell announces to his mum Maud (Wendy Nottingham) that ‘it has happened again’. ‘It’ is never fully explained, but we learn that whatever ‘it’ is requires a visit and subsequent exorcism type activity from Father Miller (Ben Allen), a priest summoned by Maud. Interest piqued. Whilst all of this is going on, we have Steph (Reneée Lamb) mysteriously prowling around the outskirts of the stage, singing beautifully as she does so. One stickler, however, which may sound petty, was the accents. As somebody from the North East, I found accents slipping ever so slightly every now and then. Likely not obvious to somebody not from the region, but it is something I picked up on.
First things first, the acting in Radiant Boy was superb. Thompson as Russell is truly acted with conviction and emotion, impressing the audience as his body is taken over by Steph and the aftermath of this. Nottingham brings some welcome comedic elements to the show, on top of acting as the disappointed, never impressed mum character. Much of Radiant Boy is made up of the exorcism – but - not sessions where Allen is interesting to watch, his face twisting in confusion and terror. Lamb is a joy to watch in the flashback scenes, it isn’t difficult to imagine her on the streets of Soho back in the 1980s.
On the surface, Radiant Boy has so much promise and potential. Some themes are explored brilliantly; religion is the obvious one here, granted the aforementioned content, the dramatic mention of stigmata and mentions of the church turning its back on Russell. Identity is very much touched upon; a young man escapes the confines of the industrial town in which he has grown up to explore the bright lights of London. It is clear that Russell no longer feels at home in the North East, any anchor previously tying him there has broken and allowed him to go further afield to be who he truly wants to be.
However, I feel like some themes could have been explored further. There are glimmers of homosexuality and homophobia, but we don’t really get our teeth into this topic as much as we could have. I found myself thinking of other productions that I think aced this theme, setting a precedent; I can’t not mention how the use of Yazoo’s ‘Only You’ reminded me of ‘It’s a Sin’, a TV series set in the same time period very much exploring homosexuality, London and the AIDs crisis.
Radiant Boy was an enjoyable enough watch with some sterling performances. This is truly a show that I know I could absolutely love, if padded out more with less mystery and more answers.
Radiant Boy plays at Southwark Playhouse Borough until 14th June 2025
★★★
