Pink Sky’s Rapture takes a powerful look at the trickiness of queer London life at VAULT Festival
“When a bitch is tired of London, she should lay down and die”
With a list of trigger warnings that includes sexual assault, substance abuse, addiction, mental illness, suicide ideation, mis-gendering, dead-naming, bereavement and grief, it’s a wonder that Sophie Leydon’s Rapture is as funny as it is, at times at least. It also makes you wonder if you’re doing London life right as it presents a unique perspective on worklife and nightlife in a big city as seen through the eyes of this queer chosen family.
They are polyamorous partner-and-girlfriend Kit and Rosy and their best friend Tommy and their existence is a whirl of parties, hook-ups, drinking, more sex and then recovery in order to do the minimum at the day job. This speed of fast living comes at a cost though, especially for members of the LGBTQ+ community and as they each try to deal with the complexities of their past, events in the present reverberate powerfully through their lives.
Depression, alcoholism and family ruptures lurk in those pasts but more tellingly, relationship issues, sexual assault and bad poetry come to dominate their present. And as we watch them try to come to terms with this level of emotional upheaval, the rush of East London living barely lets them have a minute to process it all. It’s an intoxicating mixture of chaos and compassion that emerges, an urgency that speaks so tellingly to the desire, no, need to live life as authentically as you desire.
Leydon’s mode of presentation mixes things up interesting. Spoken word interludes are blended with the narrative action, giving us more of a psychological perspective for this charismatic trio – Peter MacHale, Lynne Jeffries and Bryan Moriarty all impressing as they multi-role many supporting parts too. This may or may not be the London you recognise but the emotional freedom of the lives lived here should resonate no matter where you are.
