Blowing mixed signals

Coming out of a serious relationship and starting again with internet dating proved a traumatic enough experience for Matthew Todd that he opted to make light of it through his play Blowing Whistles .

The result is a comedy that infuses the idealistic with the jaded when Nigel and Jamie, a 10-year couple, pick up a young guy for a threesome on Gaydar and find their lives turned upside.

A success in London, Blowing Whistles is coming to the Cabaret Bar of the Imperial Hotel.

We’ve adapted it for Sydney, Todd says. It’s set on the evening of the big Mardi Gras day, which is also their 10th anniversary.

They’ve had a few friends around to celebrate, and just before going to bed they log onto the internet.

What follows are some crash-course lessons from the phenomenon of gay men’s prolific internet dating habits.

Everybody lies on their profiles, Todd says. You never know who’s coming around. Sometimes when couples have threesomes there’s one person who’s more into it.

At the beginning where the guy comes around it’s really awkward. I think everybody off Gaydar can relate to that.

While Todd acknowledges that the temptations offered by online affairs can be a pressure valve for some couples, he wrote the play knowing the potential disasters are real.

After the play first opened, Todd recalls life imitating art as a friend of his experienced the same dilemma when meeting up with a couple from Gaydar for sex.

He ended up having this affair with one of them, and felt like he was in love with them and it all went disastrously wrong. It was horrible for everybody involved.

But Todd hopes audiences realise the play’s spotlight is on themselves as the play explores not just monogamy and fidelity but gay culture as well.

We all get to a certain stage where we start to get a bit older in our 30s and 40s and you can easily feel alienated by gay culture because it’s often based around young people.

Indeed it is no surprise that Nigel and Jamie pick up a young thing who goes by the moniker Cumboy_17, who is part of the continual new blood coming onto the gay scene.

I think that’s because the gay scene sexualises young people to a huge degree. What they want and what they get are very different, but what they need is help.

I think we treat each other in such a sexual way that sometimes we forget that we’re human beings as well and should treat each other with respect.

But when Todd took his mother to see it, she wasn’t at all put off by all the casual sex.

She talked about Gaydar, -˜So they come around. What do you mean, they don’t even go for dinner first?’ I said, -˜No, sometimes they get breakfast but not usually dinner.’ Bless her.

Blowing Whistles plays on 19, 21, 26 and 28 February, 7pm, at the Imperial Hotel, Erskineville. Tickets are $15 on 9029 8349.