Andreas Constantinou’s show Champions, now playing at the Pentland theatre, Pleasance at EICC in Edinburgh, is an intimate and experimental exploration of a gay man’s fraught relationship with his father. The performance features Constantinou sitting naked in an armchair, silently listening to recorded conversations with his parents, who both died during the Covid pandemic—his father first, followed by his mother five weeks later.
The recordings, played through a TV set, radio, and gramophone on stage, create a medium-like encounter with the dead. His father’s voice dominates, expressing disappointment over his son’s sexuality, a desire for him to be a “real man,” and dismay at Constantinou’s childhood play with dolls. In contrast, the mother’s presence is less defined. Constantinou also includes recorded anecdotes from other gay men about their difficult relationships with their fathers, as well as exchanges with a therapist, lending the show an intimate, therapeutic quality.
The production evolves slowly and deliberately, with no clear narrative drive. Visually, the set is awash in washes of colour, and giant screens show a wrestling match between two men that transitions into ocean waves and meadows. The close-up, balletic, and erotic movement shifts from aggression to gentleness. The father’s homophobic remarks are breath-taking in their impact, while the ending, though feeling a touch tidy, underscores a choice to reject or accept on both sides—even posthumously.
Champions runs at the Pentland theatre, Pleasance at EICC, Edinburgh, until 16 August.
