Venus As A Boy

Cupid, or "Desiree" as he is known in the Soho circuit, is special. With one touch or kiss he can lift the fog of banal everyday experience and give a glimpse of pure ecstasy, of heaven. We meet him, as we leave him, at the end of his tale, slowly dying from the scars his gift has granted him, looking into a mirror convinced that he is turning to gold.

Tam Dean Burn's adaptation of Luke Sutherland's acclaimed novel traces the story of Cupid. From his childhood in Orkney to his orgasmic sexual awakening in his first love affair, there is an explicit surrealism to Cupid's story. Losing his virginity to a parachuting Scandinavian who magically appears without a plane in the sky is an image straight from one of Chagall's sketchbooks. Burns also cites Blake's mystically charged universe as a key influence.

As he moves away from Orkney, eventually settling in London in service of an ex-Nazi Romanian taxi driver-come-pimp, Cupid's story becomes the search for true love. Trapped by his gift into a life of prostitution, the "gorgeous Arcadian boy" with a golden heart is soon sacrificed to the post-modern Golgotha as the Biblical parallels of the story become evident.

Tam Dean Burns gives a captivating quasi-solo performance on a simple stage with few props, most notably a metal cage-wardrobe full of the shimmering sequin layered garments of the Soho Desiree. "Quasi-solo", because Luke Sutherland is ever present on stage, delivering a live musical accompaniment on guitar, violin and sampler that re-enforces the magical atmosphere of the story.

Burns moves effortlessly between the multiple characters of the story in the same way as he slips into the glittering costume of Desiree. Whilst at times the story can become as murky as the subterranean world Cupid inhabits - and the music occasionally seems overbearing - Sutherland's book is eloquently realised in this production. Tragic, shocking and even humorous at times, this is a beguiling contemporary imagining of the modern messiah. If you haven't managed to catch it already, don't fret. The show tours to the Citz in Glasgow in October. [Michael Collins]