Sauna Boy is a one-person, multi-character show, written and performed by Dan Ireland-Reeves. It tells Dan’s story of having worked in a gay sauna for 358 days – one week shy of a full year. The story is semi-autobiographical.
Ireland-Reeves bounces onto the stage, dressed in a puffer jacket, short shorts, and a tank top. He’s also wearing a jockstrap, which will, sort of, form a part of the narrative later on.
Dan is trying to be an actor. It’s not going well, and he needs a job. He’s come for an interview with Alan. Alan is the owner of the Sauna and is known as ‘Mother’.
Dan gets the job and then takes us through the basics of how a typical sauna would be laid out, what the customers tend to be like, and introduces us to the other members of staff.
There’s alarmingly few of them, for a business that seems to be open for twelve hours a day, seven days a week. They’re all working a minimum of 60 hours a week, and, according to Mother, ‘we’re all family here’ – red flag number one.
Ireland-Reeves is a consummate storyteller. His caricatures of his co-workers are humorous, generous and endearing. We warm up to everyone immediately…except Alan. Alan’s awful. Alan is, in fact, described in much harsher terms, but we can’t possibly use such language in this publication!
Dan is blunt, very blunt, about the realities of working in a Sauna. He’s very forthright that everyone is here for sex, despite what they might try to claim. No one, but no one, is here merely to ‘use the facilities’.
Dan takes us through his almost-year of working as the Sauna’s manager, weaving a tale that has some exceptional foreshadowing in the script.
As you might expect, this show has attracted an audience that includes a large number of gay men. Huge thanks to the guy in front of me wafting the rainbow fan in an overly warm room. But this was not exclusively the case, and so Dan throws a bone to the non-queer section of the crowd, explaining anything that might be unclear. He does so with a lightness of touch, lined with absolute filth – rather like the sauna itself.
There is also a very funny interlude, where Dan takes us through ‘Eight Frequently Asked Questions about Gay Saunas’. It’s genuinely enlightening, and the audience was laughing along in all the right places.
Underneath the humorous moments, the embarrassing incidents, and the private room encounters, Ireland-Reeves is weaving a subtler, darker tale. A tale of power run amok. Of how abusive working environments can be if there’s no one brave enough to stand up and say, ‘enough is enough’.
Ireland-Reeves keeps the audience enraptured during the 70-minute running time of the show. Due to very strong language, extremely adult themes, and some simulated sex scenes, this is absolutely a show for over 18s only.
Sauna Boy is a very funny, sometimes tragi-comic glimpse into a world that many people will have little knowledge of – but have enormous curiosity about. Come prepared to be drawn in, and leave any pre-judged ideas you may have at home. This is exceptional storytelling, set in a world with a sense of community and comradeship that many of us wish we could experience. Strongly recommended.
Sauna Boy continues at 20:15 in Theatre 3 at The Space @ Surgeon’s Hall, until August 16 (not 10).
Featured Image supplied by Dan Ireland-Reeves
