Andrew Doherty’s idiosyncratic folk horror comedy Gay Witch Sex Cult was one of the most arresting stand up debuts at last year’s Fringe. And its follow up Sad Gay AIDS Play is a lot of fun. But it also sails into tropier waters than its predecessor, and though hardly a run of the mill stand up show, it does feel like it’s treading on some pretty well worn ground.
Doherty again plays a preeningly precious and self-regarding version of himself, now attempting to write a follow up to last year’s hit. Unfortunately his wealthy parents are refusing to bankroll him this time, so he’s turned to the Arts Council England, who have no interest in the creepy Six-esque musical he wants to write. But upon hearing he’s gay, ACE suggests in the strongest possible terms that he write a play about AIDS.
Doherty goes about all this very amusingly, and his secret weapon is his own stage persona. Weasley, brittle and self justifying, making art for all the wrong reasons, secure in the knowledge that mummy and daddy’s money will bail him out if things go south - it’s depressingly but hilariously acute satire.
But a bad taste play about AIDS? In 2025? Really? Team America’s ‘Everyone Has AIDS’ was 21 years ago and it’s decades on from the flowering of the great AIDS related dramas. It’s an absurdly anachronistic provocation – a handful of off-colour jokes about The Troubles feel edgier. Likewise the bit where he throws in a scene about a simple working class lad from Newcastle because ACE requires some regional poverty porn: basically the same jokes were made in the League of Gentlemen’s Legz Akimbo sketches in the ‘90s. Of course there’s nothing wrong with sharing some DNA with some gags made a quarter century ago, but as satire goes it’s pretty rusted.
Doherty is capable of both originality and beguiling weirdness, and as Sad Gay AIDS Play wears on the whole ACE thing goes off the rails in a pleasingly bizarre way. But it‘s a shame his good ideas here are so heavily propped up by vintage satirical tropes - it’s not a patch on, say, Liz Kingsman’s recent One-Woman Show, which mined similar territory to dazzlingly virtuosic effect.
It’s a little bit ‘difficult second show’ and topping Gay Witch Sex Cult while offering continuity with it was always going to be tricky. Doherty himself remains a deliciously twisted performer – he just needs to find another vehicle for himself that’s as good as his debut.
