So tonight I was front of house at Outhouse, for the second day of the 2016 gay theatre festival.

Again two consecutive shows in the basement theatre of the funky Outhouse building.

Along with my glamorous volunteer colleagues we had to show teeth, show people to the theatre space, get feedback for the artists after their shows, tell people upstairs to zip it as there was a performance in progress, and generally just scurry around looking useful, busy and responsible.

Sadly I missed the first show ‘Bellelen: Helen of Troy’ – a modern day retelling of the tale of Helen – as the show had started before I could sneak into a side seat. And interrupting a performance is strictly verboten. In this incarnation Helen is a Greek trannsexual fleeing the financial crisis by working as a pole dancer.

And that’s all I know about it.

For the second show, with admirable agility I made sure I was seated with a glass of wine before the lights dimmed.

I’m classy that way you see.

It was a show called ‘Word Play’ by a Canadian company called Topikos Theatre, which was written and performed by the two leads – a  straight woman and a gay man, who are sucking down a bottle of cheap wine stolen from the all night diner they are working at in Toronto after their night shift.

It’s a rowdy and hilarious discussion about insults, and swear words and homophobia and misogyny, with the leads debating the power of words used to demean women and gay people.

It’s hilariously funny and very crude – in a good way.

And quite biting. As they proceed to get drunker, the 2 characters start bullying and belittling and insulting their somewhat simple, straight, male colleague – but as they are not using ‘offensive’ language, they don’t see how appalling they are being to him. All the while they are arguing over whether homophobia or misogyny is worse. While bullying their colleague.

A slight criticism, is the use of the ‘Hey we’re in Ireland, you’re all drunks right?’ cliche which was used twice. That kind of vague national stereotype annoys me

I took a stern sip of my wine to express my disapproval.

Excellent show though – on until Saturday.