Review – Jerker – Waterloo East Theatre, London

PLEASE NOTE – THIS REVIEW CONTAINS ADULT THEMES 

There was a time, pre-internet, when phone sex was the main outlet for anonymous self-gratification, and Robert Chesley’s Jerker takes us straight back to those days — when a sexy voice on the other end of a telephone line could be every bit as exciting as meeting in person.

Playing at the Waterloo East Theatre, Jerker plunges us into 1980s San Francisco, where sex, desire and danger existed in a world transformed by the terrifying arrival of the AIDS epidemic. It is a setting that gives this deceptively simple two-hander considerably more bite. These are men looking for intimacy at a time when intimacy itself could feel frighteningly risky.

The irony is delicious: today, phones put the entire world in our pockets, complete with webcams and endless opportunities for instant visual gratification. Back then, the imagination had to do the heavy lifting. Phone sex was intimate, anonymous and intensely personal — until internet webcams eventually added the visual dimension that helped change the landscape of online sexual encounters. Chesley’s play takes that old-fashioned technology and turns it into surprisingly gripping theatre.

James Lee, as Bert, is terrific. He brings just the right mixture of cheekiness, vulnerability and sexual confidence, while making it clear that beneath the banter is a man craving something much more substantial. Lee knows when to make Bert funny and when to let the mask slip, and those quieter moments give the performance real emotional punch.

Paul Dennison’s JR is equally impressive. He initially appears more relaxed and assured, but Dennison gradually exposes the uncertainties and needs lurking underneath. The result is a character who becomes increasingly fascinating as the evening progresses.

Put Lee and Dennison together and sparks fly. Their chemistry is the engine of the production, turning what might sound like an old-fashioned telephone conversation into something surprisingly immediate. You listen to these two men talking, flirting, joking and revealing themselves, and before long you find yourself invested in what happens next. And that is the clever trick of Jerker. Yes, sex is everywhere. The conversations are raw and intense, the subject matter is provocative and the characters are clearly getting plenty of mileage out of their imaginations. But this isn’t really a play about getting off. It is a play about wanting someone to know you.

That becomes especially poignant against the backdrop of AIDS-era San Francisco. The shadow of the epidemic hangs over the story, giving the characters’ search for connection an additional emotional charge. Pleasure and fear sit side by side, making even the most playful exchanges feel loaded with significance. There is plenty of humour too. Jerker refuses to wallow in misery. It can be cheeky, funny, sexy, tender and unexpectedly heartbreaking — sometimes almost simultaneously.

The intimate Waterloo East Theatre setting works beautifully. There is nowhere for the actors to hide and nowhere for the audience to escape. We become almost accidental eavesdroppers on a private relationship developing in real time. Lee and Dennison rise magnificently to the challenge. Their performances make the technology almost irrelevant. Strip away the telephone, the decade and the sexual premise, and what remains is something timeless: two lonely people discovering that perhaps they aren’t quite so lonely after all.

Sexy, funny, provocative and unexpectedly moving, Jerker proves that you don’t necessarily need a spectacular set or a cast of dozens to create theatrical fireworks. Give two good actors a telephone, a little imagination and a lot of sexual tension — and the results are electrifying.

Two voices. One phone connection. Plenty of heat. That’s Jerker.

*****   Five Stars