“Come Out Fighting”

A new play by Nick Bamford: a gay re-imagining of the story of Carmen.

Corporal Joe Donaldson’s suppressed sexuality finds vent only in violence, honed by his military training. But then he meets Carl and is propelled headlong into unknown waters – the world of a celebrity boxer and infatuation with a young man whom life has taught not to trust love or commitment.

As his world crashes down around him, Joe’s confusion, and his violent instincts threaten to destroy them both.

Essentially a love story inspired by Merimée and Bizet’s immortal Carmen, Come Out Fighting explores male sexuality and its testosterone-driven links with aggression and violence.

Two squaddies, both damaged by childhood abuse, are pitched into a desperate, sado-masochistic affair, fuelled by jealousy, anger and betrayal where fighting and sex become indistinguishable.

Can they overcome their compromised understanding of physical and emotional relationships to find what they both crave, even if they have yet to recognise what that is?

Set against this troubled romance is the wry subplot of a gay celebrity boxer whose manager struggles to keep the nature – and insatiability – of his fighter’s sexual appetite under wraps.

Come Out Fighting has passion, action, even some comedy – and something to say to everyone. The script manages successfully to combine a sense of gritty realism of the life of a Squaddie, of Joe’s coming out and of Carl’s hidden vulnerability, all with a certain amount of humour.

Come Out Fighting is a new play by Nick Bamford and performed by What Now Product!ons. New to Cornwall, the company brings decades of experience to produce engaging, original, new writing for both stage and screen…..

We examine what it is to be human..

We reflect, we explore, we question, we look at old stories and tell them in new ways, or find out what happened next…