Thoroughly researched and deeply felt, Alistair Hall’s Buggers is a unflinching look at the passionate, codependent and often violent relationship between artist Francis Bacon and his lover-muse George Dyer.
Structured like one of Bacon’s triptychs, we absorb three snapshots in the men’s eight year relationship: beginning, middle and end. The men’s first meeting at a Soho drinking den in 1963 is wordless, portentous and sexually charged. It is a tense dance, circling each other like matadors, with their intensity, movement and the sound design maintaining a feeling of menace. There are many risks at play for these two men – the ones they pose to each other, and those from society in a time when homosexuality was still illegal and the penalties severe.
Hall’s play is insightful and unflinching, with both men stripped to their flaws. Inspired by his own passion for the artist’s work, he contacted the Bacon estate, who opened their archive to him and did not apply any constraints. The characters he has created as a result are complex and multifaceted. Bacon’s fierce drive and single-mindedness makes him a potentially unlikeable character, yet Hall portrays him with enough guile and twinkle in the eye that we are still drawn to him – perhaps art imitating life. Peter Clements gives a devastating performance as George, a bear of a man, who is initially so full of confidence and swagger, but who entirely loses his sense of self and descends into addiction.
The relationship between the two men is exceptionally charged, and often uncomfortable. Francis has so much more status than George, and that becomes insurmountable for the “bit of rough trade” from the East End. The elements of sadomasochism hint at both Bacon’s risk-taking behaviours, and the double-edged sword of achieving success. The necessary secrecy and the undercurrent of shame that permeated queer relationships in the 1960s and 70s is ever present.
Ken Nakajima’s movement direction is superb throughout, making great use of the space, the actors differing physicalities and the ever-present feeling of foreboding. Coupled with Alice Wordsworth’s exceptional direction, this is a fluid, challenging piece that never goes for the easy answer.
Complex, nuanced and confronting, Buggers is a dynamic examination of the two men’s tumultuous relationship, and the self-destruction that seemed baked-in from the start. Hall and Dyer give outstanding performances as the artist and his muse, each evincing their own form of desperation as their affair hurtles towards its doomed conclusion.
By Deborah Klayman
Buggers plays at Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh until August 30th 2026.