“Ask yourself this. If there were no praise or blame – who would I be?”
Naked Hope depicts the legendary Quentin Crisp at two distinct phases of his extraordinary life. Firstly, in the late 1960s in his filthy Chelsea flat (“Don’t lose your nerve: after the first four years the dirt won’t get any worse!”). Here Quentin surveys a lifetime of degradation and rejection. Repeatedly beaten for being flamboyantly gay as early as the 1930s, but also ostracised simply for daring to live life on his own terms.
The second part of the play transitions the audience to New York in the 1990s. Here a much older Quentin, finally embraced by society, regales the audience with his sharply-observed, hard-earned philosophy on how to have a lifestyle: “Life will be more difficult if you try to become yourself. But avoiding this difficulty renders life meaningless. So discover who you are. And be it. Like mad!”
Having debuted at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2014, Naked Hope has toured around the country ever since. The play is a glorious, truthful and uplifting celebration of a genuinely unique human being, and of the urgent necessity to be yourself.
Written and performed by Mark Farrelly.
Doors open at 6pm for a 7pm start. 75 minutes with no interval.
Suitable for ages 14+
Please note that the Library Theatre is no longer able to offer wheelchair access.
Please contact the organisers at SAYIT if the ticket price would make it difficult for you to attend.
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