Brokeback Mountain – @sohoplace

Mike Faist and Lucas Hedges in Brokeback Mountain at @sohoplace, London. Picture: Manuel Harlan

Brokeback Mountain continues at @sohoplace, London until 12 August 2023.

Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

If you haven’t yet treated yourself to a trip to the gorgeous new @sohoplace theatre by Tottenham Court Road, take this as an enthusiastic shove in that direction. Since opening last year, this venue has yet to put on a full-blown musical, and though Brokeback Mountain is very much a “play with songs” which doesn’t technically break that streak, it serves as a fine proof of concept for how well the space is suited for musical theatre.

Annie Proulx’s Brokeback Mountain book was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, the 2005 film for an Oscar, and it would be a big surprise if this gorgeous piece of theatre – written by Ashley Robinson and directed by Jonathan Butterell – wasn’t everywhere come awards season. If you’re worried about this being just another cheap movie-turned-into-a-musical adaptation, never fear: there are no jazz hands or tap-dancing cowboys. Instead, we are treated to an impeccably-acted drama in an intimate space, with poignant songs and underscoring performed by a side-of-stage band.

Dan Gillespie Sells, frontman of indie band The Feeling and composer of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, provides the music, which is impressively restrained. In a show powered by subtleties, quiet, single-note piano repetitions and swells of pedal steel guitar move us far more than a full Wagnerian orchestra could. The songs conjure up vivid images of barren Wyoming vistas, with heartfelt vocals by singer-songwriter Eddi Reader.

Crucially, the sound is impeccable. @sohoplace is a new venue and a lot of work has clearly gone into making sure its technical provision is up to any theatrical challenge. It is a joy to hear every detail of every instrument in such crisp definition. David Finn’s lighting design and Tom Pye’s set are also as immersing as you could want from the cutting edge of theatrical technology, without ever being overly-ostentatious or drawing attention away from the human action onstage. Much like the Boulevard Theatre’s perfect 2019 production of Dave Malloy’s Ghost Quartet, this is a masterful staging of a deeply-affecting, music-centred work of theatre that makes one excited for the future possibilities of the new space.

As Jack and Ennis, the two Wyoming cowboys who find themselves falling in love while working together on the titular mountain, Mike Faist and Lucas Hedges are simply brilliant. When alone with the man who he comes to love, Faist’s kinetic energy propels his Jack all around the space, even fidgeting when forced to stand still. In contrast, Hedges’ Ennis is perpetually pulled to stillness by prejudice and trauma. So much is communicated in the small glances and gestures, that when their love explodes into passion, the effect is nearly overwhelming.

Something very striking about the play is the sheer physical intimacy on display. That isn’t to say it is explicit – in fact, there is little nudity and the sex scenes are concealed and brief – but the intensity with which these two men throw their bodies together, propelled by a force far more powerful than sad prejudice, is almost shocking. Often in theatre, love and lust are dramatised with a sweet bit of music and a kiss, or at most a highly-controlled and choreographed caress. I have no worry that the pair ever breaks any boundaries set with intimacy director Tommy Ross-Williams, but their passion feels truly real and spontaneous. As this is a British audience, there are even some nervous giggles during allusions to and portrayals of sex. Without resorting to the explicit, Brokeback Mountain still challenges the uptight conventions we cling to in this country.

I was lucky enough to attend a press night performance, and all around me I saw theatre critics cry. That’s right, those cold-hearted, cynical monsters, numb to all emotion after years of pretentious restagings of Chekhov, finally broken by the beautiful humanity on display here. Brokeback Mountain speaks to universal themes of fear, regret, heartbreak and loss, nails them all and then makes it all so much more tragic with the specific, horrific and sadly still relevant prejudices that can stand in the way of true love. The story is a modern classic, and it is presented to perfection here.

Ian Bowkett