53two, Manchester
In a lively revival of this 2009 tussle between love and identity, its barbed verbal sparring overcomes the slightly dated sexual dynamics

How charged and potent words can be. And how they can mislead. The title of British playwright Mike Bartlett’s 2009 play is principally a reference to the cockfights he saw in Mexico. But this bait-and-switch is merely the starting gun of a play about the slipperiness of language and labels: gay, straight, boyfriend, brother. Their elasticity is strained and snapped.

It’s a tension that buzzes through this new production – the first time the play has been seen in the north of England. Joe Gill plays John, the only named character, who confesses to his boyfriend, M, at the start to cheating on him with a woman, W. The play rolls through the fallout, rewinds to John’s first encounter with W, then culminates in them all meeting for a prickly dinner.