If the Sydney theatre scene’s obsession last year was clowns, this year it seems to be cowboys. But God’s Cowboy isn’t really about the wild west. Instead, this intimate, explosive play takes us much closer to home.
Peter (Nathaniel Savy) has been a performer for his entire life, particularly fond of movie musicals and old cowboy films. When he books a part in a show with his sister (Sophia Laurantus as Penny) he quickly finds his cowboy dreams are starting to come true in an entirely new way. Daniel, a very broken and very suave outlaw type has rolled into town to do the show, and although tormented by his sadistic ex boyfriend Demetrius, Peter and Daniel begin to attempt to explore what healing could look like with each other.
This play at its core is about unstable relationships. Queerness can often be trivialised, oversexualised or infantilised, never allowed to be as messy or complicated as heterosexual relationships are. In that respect, the play is refreshingly blunt about what trauma does to your relationships. The design of the show reflects this: black and red costuming, and staging never quite in bright, warm light.
The cast puts in honourable performances across the board. Max Fernandez is a charismatic performer, and although became demonstrative at points, shined in the more uncomfortable tragic parts of the show. Nathaniel Savy brought genuine queer humour into the text, and when he leaned into the absurdism of the world around him, he was a joy to watch. Sophia Laurantus is very likeable on stage, and had the strongest emotional range on stage, although her stage time was tragically short. Tate Wilkinson Alexander shone as the screwed up sleazebag, and although has a habit of leaning into a monotone delivery, when required, was often a scene stealer – especially in moments of stunt work or massive emotional delivery.
The weakest link in this show is unfortunately the text. Although Ella Morris (director) and her cast have put in clear effort across the board to create something interesting, the text dips into cliche often, and is unclear – especially through the first act. The strongest points were when the script fully leaned into how ridiculous it wanted to be, aided by the hopped up performances of the cast, and overall the second act was significantly stronger. Morris’s effective direction has clearly worked hard to soften some of the script’s weaker points, but it has required the cast to in many ways keep the show up by themselves.
God’s Cowboy is an interesting look into the darker side of queer relationships – an optimistic take on the idea that someone doesn’t have to be in your life forever for them to matter. In many ways, this is particularly important as scrutiny on the queer community comes to an all time high in decades, showing the world that even though perhaps not all queer relationships are perfect, they are as human and as important as everyone else’s.
To book tickets to God’s Cowboy, please visit https://www.flightpaththeatre.org/whats-on/gods-cowboy.
