Michael McClure's hour-long two-hander is a little piece of theatrical history that ranks alongside Jack Kerouac's On the Road and Alan Ginsberg's Howl as a milestone in the annals of the American Beat movement.
First performed in California in the mid-1960s, it outraged the authorities (it climaxes in a witty simulated sex act that perhaps explains the otherwise enigmatic title) and saw the actors charged with 'lewd or dissolute conduct in a public place' and arrested.
Nic Saunders' welcome revival at the Old Red Lion demonstrates that The Beard has lost little of its power to shock and - perhaps more importantly - intrigue. The action consists of an encounter in eternity between Hollywood glamourpuss Jean Harlow and famed outlaw Billy The Kid.
As these two icons engage in tenderly vicious verbal foreplay in their existential otherworld, in classic Beat fashion the circular dialogue blends the commonplaces of the American Dream with the paradoxes of Zen Buddhism.
Mysteriously resonant (and occasionally obscene) phrases are launched back and forth by Harlow and The Kid in incantatory, ritualistic fashion as their flirtation gathers pace. It's fascinating stuff, played to hypnotic effect by Christopher Daley and Victoria Yeates.
Tomorrow until Sat, Old Red Lion, 418 St John Street EC1, Tue to Sat 8pm, Sun mat 4pm, £12, £10 concs. Tel: 020 7837 7816. Tube: Angel
The Beard
