Gay London Life | September '26 Edition - Magazine - Page 24
Forty years after it first caused a stir, Robert Chesley’s Jerker is heading back
to London for a strictly limited three-week run at Waterloo East Theatre, and
it’s bringing sex, longing and queer connection with it.
The two-hander follows Bert and JR, two strangers who begin
speaking through a series of late-night phone calls. What starts as
anonymous fantasy quickly becomes something far more intimate, as
the men share secrets, fears and desires without ever seeing each other.
With nothing but their voices between them, the line between fantasy and
genuine connection starts to blur.
First written in the 1980s, Jerker is often described as provocative, but
there’s tenderness underneath the heat. The play looks at how queer men
create intimacy in isolation, and how being heard by another person can
become its own kind of lifeline. Forty years on, that feels every bit as relevant.
This anniversary production stars James Lee as Bert and Paul
Dennison as JR. Lee makes his professional stage debut in the production,
while Dennison may already be familiar to LGBTQ+ audiences as Mr Gay
England 2021 and Mr Gay Europe 2022. The production is directed by
Henry Adams, with Alice Camarota as assistant and intimacy director, and
is produced by Adam Roebuck, whose credits include Afterglow and the
recent London revival of F**king Men.
Expect something steamy, funny, vulnerable and just a little bit
dangerous. Jerker doesn’t shy away from sex, but the
real hook is what happens when fantasy gives way to
feeling. It’s an intimate queer story with plenty to say
Jerker:
Desire on The Line
about desire, loneliness and the strange ways we find
each other.
Jerker runs from 26 September to 18 October
at Waterloo East Theatre, Brad Street, London SE1 8TN.
Tickets are £25–£40. 18+.
James Lee
24
Paul Dennison
Book now at waterlooeast.co.uk/jerker
