Credit: Bohumil Kostohryz

Seven performances of the English-language play Cock will take place at the Théâtre des Capucins in Luxembourg-Ville, starting on Tuesday 14 May 2024.

This play by English playwright Mike Bartlett and this year directed by Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg associate artist, Anne Simon, started being put on in 2009. Since that first production, the Olivier Award-winning play has had two major UK revivals and seems differently relevant as issues that were not even discussed a decade ago of sexual fluidity and gender identification are now part of the wider consciousness.

This relatively short play portrays the story of a dithering John who, while taking a break from his long-term boyfriend, unexpectedly meets the woman of his dreams. As John tries to shed the labels he has felt comfortable with for a long time, the darkly comical forces of his indecision come to a head in a dramatic dinner party confrontation, including a familiar surprise guest. Cock is an exploration of sexual identity in a world of endless possibilities. It is also a classic love triangle tale that depicts its central figure’s selfishness, cruelty and destructiveness.

Bartlett specified “no scenery, no props, no furniture, and no mime,” making the play’s setting a blank canvas despite its “English, middle-class, drawing-room drama” setting and understated British irony.

According to the 2017 introduction to the play by Mark O’Thomas, from the onset of his writing career, Bartlett had been interested in exploring and experimenting with form. In the case of Cock, the popularity of cockfights in Mexico inspired the form of this play from the way dialogue is realised on stage, with the characters fighting and “picking at” each other.

The director of the play, Anne Simon, explained: “What becomes apparent in Cock is that no matter how specifically or different or alternative we define ourselves, the need for structure and the apparent stability that (often binary) conventions give on the one hand and the longing for chaos, go hand in hand and are necessary opposites.

We want our lives ideally to be in balance, to have some “normality” and stick to, to copy, re-appropriate or invent new conventions to hold on to and to break. Because now and again, we want to feel really alive, on the edge, at a palpitating tipping-point. Conventions hold things together, they pretend that things are smooth, in harmony and balance; then, they get whacked out of balance, by a literal car crash, that then leads to one or more metaphorical crashes before things find a new or old balance,” she concluded.

Performances are scheduled for Tuesday 14, Wednesday 15, Friday 17, Tuesday 21 (followed by a Q&A), Wednesday 22, Thursday 23 and Friday 24 May 2024 at 20:00.

Janine Goedert will introduce the play (in English) 30 minutes before each performance. Rosa Lëtzebuerg will be present at the performances with an information stand.

Tickets cost €8, €15 or €20; Kulturpass welcome.

For further details and reservations, visit https://theatres.lu/fr/cock.