Philip Venables – nose ring, shaved head, black hoodie – is prancing in one corner of the rehearsal studio like a marionette yanked around by an unseen puppeteer. It is all part of the British composer’s efforts to convey to the 15-strong company the desired tempo for this section of his score for The Faggots & Their Friends Between Revolutions, which premieres at the Manchester international festival next week. Adapted from Larry Mitchell’s underground manifesto-cum-fable, published in 1977 and inspired by the author’s experiences of queer communal living, it is set in the land of Ramrod, where the tyrannical patriarchy (the men) is mocked, defied and plotted against by the faggots and their friends, who include the faeries, the faggatinas and the women who love women. Through their solidarity, they find the strength, as well as the silliness, to endure and overwhelm their oppressors.
Venables’ impromptu display works so well that the show’s musical director, Yshani Perinpanayagam, who is padding around in socks with the word “Fuck” on the soles, asks him to demonstrate how the next section should sound. By the end of the afternoon, the densely layered music has acquired a grinding relentlessness. Director Ted Huffman, whose previous collaborations with Venables include an opera based on Sarah Kane’s gruelling final play 4:48 Psychosis, sits everyone down on the floor for a debriefing. “I can see you all starting to glaze over,” he says. “So I wanted to reassure you that the piece is built that way, metaphor-wise, to show what it’s like to live in the men’s world. Next week, we’ll move on to the lighter, gentler part.” With that, the performers disperse, clutching their various instruments: accordion, cello, violin, lute.
