Fucking Games

Synopsis

London, 2001

Terence hosts a coke-fueled evening at his posh Chelsea flat, playing cruel mind games with his long-term partner Jonah as well as Jude, a younger man Terence is having an affair with.

With its frank depictions of gay sexuality, drug use, and the emptiness of materialistic urban life, the play explores themes of gay identity, promiscuity, intergenerational divides, and the limits of sexual liberation. However, many critics found Cleugh’s characters to be thinly-drawn stereotypes trapped in melodramatic plotting reminiscent of an earlier era. While trying to skewer the self-loathing and vapidity of certain gay scenes, the play itself was viewed by some as trafficking in outmoded perspectives and homophobic tropes, despite its admittedly bold premise.