“Gasowski and Asimos earn every emotional moment and then some but these moments are not allowed to just sit and live, short-changing the audience who want these moments to develop.”
“The timing of this play could not be more apposite. How much longer will homophobia be at the core of sports like football? How much longer before a player’s sexuality is not worthy of headlines but is completely irrelevant?“
Kate Stratford
3 /5 goals
As I write, it has only been a few days since Jake Daniels has ended decades of silence within men’s football to become the first player in the UK to come out as gay since Justin Fashanu in 1990 – and it made headlines. In Australia, Josh Cavallo, a professional soccer player, came out in 2021. In 2022 one would hope that we as a society have come far enough down the cultural road to separate sexuality from sporting ability. But we have not.
Why must all sporting identities identify as exclusively heterosexual? What feeds the fear of closeted sporting heroes? This is the substance of Adam Fawcett’s Become the One, on tour and currently at the Riverside. Noah (Mason Gasowski) is an openly gay cleaner whose agency sends him to clean the apartment of Tom (Chris Asimos) – a professional and revered footy player. And also, as it turns out, a closeted gay. Tom quickly falls for Noah and the relationship takes off, with all the initial awkwardness of beginning, the joy of growing and pain of problems which threaten longevity. And the biggest problem? No-one is allowed to know. The relationship must stay closeted. Noah initially accepts this but as the relationship blossoms and declarations of love are made, Noah gently pushes Tom to be true to himself and the world. To become that one sports celebrity who comes out.
Gasowski and Asimos earn every emotional moment and then some but these moments are not allowed to just sit and live, short-changing the audience who want these moments to develop. Consequently, the authenticity of relationship was compromised. There were other directorial choices ( Lyall Brooks) which affected the energy of the play. The many scenes were punctuated with frustrating empty stage transitions. An empty stage is a drop in the energy the actors work so hard to establish and must re-establish every time. In this age of easy, cheap theatrical multi-media, filling transitions with simple projections of images of life without each other on the outside, or of the passing of time and seasons would not only help develop the backstory but keep audience emotionally engaged. Perhaps it would also obviate the need for so many costume changes.
Fawcett’s script is littered with punchy one-liners (“I love you … unfortunately”) but some of them land awkwardly. It is a matter of beat timing
and at times, sound levels which threatened to drown out the actors. The audience needs to care. Don’t deny us that possibility.
Played out on a nicely portable, but confining, set where the artificial grass consistently reminds us of the importance of football in this relationship, Noah is consistently the one having to make the adjustments as he agrees to play on Tom’s turf by Tom’s rules. In many ways, Noah’s character is more mature. Having painfully come to a clear acceptance of who he is, Noah is prepared to lovingly help Tom by supporting him on his journey in his comfort zone. That Tom is torn, is clear, and whilst he would like to be “out”, he is imprisoned by a
narrow version of masculinity.
The timing of this play could not be more apposite. How much longer will homophobia be at the core of sports like football? How much longer before a player’s sexuality is not worthy of headlines but is completely irrelevant?
Frustratingly, one suspects it is going to be too, too long.
Kate Stratford, Theatre Now
