“The rapid-fire barbs in COCK cut even more profoundly. Satirical, Edgy, and Sharp. Worth another visit.”

Barrie’s Talk is Free Theatre (TIFT) first produced Mike Bartlett’s ‘Cock’ in early 2024. That was the last time I saw it; I found it exceptionally provocative then.

In January of this year, the play sold out in Toronto at the Artists Play Studio within the Carlaw Industrial Centre, where it’s currently playing.

Revisiting a play is always beneficial, especially when it enables an audience to appreciate its theatricality.

Under Dylan Trowbridge’s skillful direction, there is a reason to see this terrific production again—the 2024 cast returns. Trowbridge’s blocking captures the characters' emotional turmoil. When they feel disconnected, the distance in the blocking conveys that emotion. When intimacy is present, the characters are closely connected.

While ‘Cock’ is classified as a comedy. I didn’t fully appreciate it during the 2024 Barrie performance.

This time, I get Bartlett’s razor-sharp, edgy humour.

It’s cerebral and mature yet still appropriately hilarious and even a bit eyebrow-raising. Giving away some of these moments will spoil the dramatic effect Trowbridge and the actors have created.

John (Jakob Ehman), a gay man, has been in a strained relationship with his partner, M (Michael Torontow), for seven years. When John meets and falls in love with W (Tess Benger), he is forced to contemplate the boundaries of his identity and decide what he truly wants for his future. M encourages John to invite W for dinner. A fourth person, M’s widowed father, F (Kevin Bundy), joins them for an enlightening and sometimes uncomfortable communal dinner.

Kathleen Black’s production design establishes a theatre-in-the-round setting at the Artists Play Studio, creating an intimate experience for both actors and the audience. Although I’ve never attended a cock fight, I’ve seen videos of this illegal activity taking place online. Black has aptly created that dingy environment in this studio space.

Drop sheets (used to cover floors when walls and ceilings are painted) are hung along the back. They are marked with white paint splotches. Backlit lighting illuminates the actors speaking from behind these drop sheets, maintaining a suspenseful and foreboding effect.

Occasionally, the actors click a floor switch using their feet to turn on an almost blinding floor lamp. They occasionally sit or stand from the audience's perspective as they converse or listen to one another. At one point, the four sit separately in the north, south, east, and west directions, facing each other. When that occurs, the tension strongly seethes and bubbles.

In 2024, Trowbridge spoke to the audience pre-show. At that time, he said that ‘Cock’ concerns the human heart. His vision deals with love’s capacity to make us feel euphoric, joyful, brutal pain, desperate fear, and overwhelming confusion. The universal theme of love is nothing new in the theatre. However, how this theme is treated can make it a discussion-worthy post-show.

TIFT’s production does just that.

Excluding John, who is given a specific name, the other characters are identified by their initials. A possible understanding might be M (meaning man), W (meaning woman), and F (meaning father). This is clever, but it also leads to a further understanding of one of the play’s themes Trowbridge spoke of back in 2024: “Love transcends sexuality and gender. It ignites primal fear between individuals and within individuals.”

Consequently, because individuals understand and experience love in diverse ways, naming the other characters is not essential. For Bartlett and Trowbridge, the characters identified solely by initials are universal. They may represent anyone familiar to us, as we all perceive and experience some form of love with others.

Performances remain searing and bold. Bartlett’s rapid-fire dialogue is delivered with crispness, clarity, purpose, and intent.

Michael Torontow’s Freddie Mercury-like, swarthy appearance as M is audacious. His sexual prowess is highly apparent. Initially, he looks self-assured in his suavity. With his broad shoulders, fit physique, tight, slightly ripped pants, frayed shirt, and black nail polish, Torontow portrays an M who likes to maintain control. M becomes like a rooster in a cockfight when he loses that control. He occasionally attacks John with some rather terrible remarks. M tries to tear John apart with demeaning language to assert dominance and control.

Jakob Ehman’s John asserts dominance by silently inviting others to control him. Ehman opens the garage door at the top of the show to let the audience in. As he eyes the audience entering, the coy look on his face conveys a lot. Ehman’s John is ready to spar with anyone prepared to take him on.

Tess Benger’s W is sexy, seductive, down-to-earth, rational, and forthright. She becomes John's perfect foil. She reminds him of the life John can have with her that cannot be had with M. The physical attraction between her and Ehman’s John remains genuinely palpable. Their first sexual encounter is a strong indication. It never crosses the line or borders on the vulgar.

While Kevin Bundy appears in the play's final moments, his F becomes a crucial reminder of how parents will always support their children, even when they are adults. Parents may not always agree with their adult children's life choices, yet Bundy’s F embodies the principle, “Once a parent, always a parent.”

Watching this performance a year later, I noticed that Bundy plays F with a hint of a weary, exasperated parent in both his voice and physical stance. That choice works. It enhances the understanding of F’s backstory. It appears that the father rushes to his son’s side each time a relationship fails. Yes, that would certainly make a parent weary and tired.

‘Cock’ still raises the question of what it means to love someone truly while transcending sexuality and gender. Do people who genuinely and honestly love someone speak and behave like these characters? Can that question be answered with a YES, or NO?

That’s a discussion-worthy topic post-show as well.

When M asks John one final question at the end, the distance and void between them amplifies the intensity of wondering if John will respond. Torontow’s repeating of the question over and over remains haunting. It also allows for post show discussion as well.

Good theatre, indeed.

This ‘Cock’ is good theatre.

Go and see it.

Running time: approximately 90 minutes with no interval/intermission.

‘Cock’ runs until May 2, 2025, at the Artists Play Studio within the Carlaw Industrial Centre, 388 Carlaw Avenue, Toronto. For tickets: www.tift.ca.

TALK IS FREE THEATRE presents
COCK by Mike Bartlett

Directed by Dylan Trowbridge
Assistant Director, Sound Designer: Nolan Moberly
Production Manager: Jeff Braunstein
Production Design: Kathleen Black
Stage Manager: Jeff Soucy

Performers: Tess Benger, Kevin Bundy, Jakob Ehman, Michael Torontow