Felix is a single guy looking for love. Or at least a good roll in the hay. With his beanie and printed t-shirt he looks like your average Sydney dude. The staging, with a distinctly share-house vibe lounge room complete with mismatched pillows and chairs, a hat stand and the fast food debris from the night before, confirms this. Felix (Gavin Roach) isn’t doing so well though. Grindr has started to take over his life, he drinks too much, and he spends too much time cruising online. But that’s not to say he hasn’t had fun.
Much of the monologue/confessional bubbles along in a stream of consciousness of often funny, sometimes insightful observations about Grindr and the people who use it. Particularly amusing is the riff on the assorted and fascinating fetishes that Felix encounters in his paramours: such as the gentleman that Felix chatted to on Grindr who was dressed in a cow suit and used the word “moo” as his pick-up line. Which was, as Felix pointed out, entirely appropriate.
Some of these observations were ever so slightly discomforting, such as the rather in-depth description of his encounter with the foot fetishist.
As Felix swings between being wildly uninhibited, naughty and confident to nervous and vulnerable, he touches on many of the questions that surround love, dating and sex in the modern world. Is the internet and social networking really making us less lonely? Why is it so hard to find a genuine connection? Does he really like the real me?
The use of Grindr as a touchstone and the added dollops of jokes and wry insights helps the fairly static monologue from veering into self-indulgence. It’s fun and cheeky. Especially if you go by the reaction of the audience who laugh uproariously, groan with understanding and squeeze their partners knees sheepishly.
Felix is telling all of his secrets because he is waiting for a date. A date with a boy that he didn’t meet online. A date with a boy that he really likes. And as he drinks too many glasses of wine and considers self-sabotaging, it touches a nerve with anyone who’s opened up their heart a little and hoped for the best. Felix is charismatic and likeable, and by the end you’re barracking for him to do the right thing and you want him to be loved.
Rating: Three stars
Confessions of a Grindr Addict
Written and performed by Gavin Roach
Directed by Jason Dixon
The New Theatre, Newtown
September 24 – 26
The Sydney Fringe
September 9 – October 2
