Most of what we hear about incel groups is disturbingly anti-female. Such stuff discourages us from looking beyond our objections to the variations in the way 'involuntary celibates', incels, express themselves and the issues and even suffering that lies behind their behaviour.
The satirical play The Last Incel doesn't shy away from making clear its opposition to such groups, but it does so in a way that lets us glimpse the underlying vulnerabilities of such men.
It does so with humour, including some hilarious, short, well-choreographed dance routines and, at certain points, a script with a fine lyrical tilt.
The show opens with three men dressed in black T-shirts and jeans standing centre stage, speaking to us through narrow black-framed squares they each carry to represent the screen of a computer. What they initially say could easily have been a monologue, but each delivers the section, one sentence after the other, emphasising its rhythm.
The content of what they say, “we were born to be stepped on,” is as gloomy as their incel reputation. They are unable to find a romantic or sexual partner, at times blaming women for their situation. As one of them says to a woman later in the show, “romance is dead. You whores have fucked it to death.”
We meet them at a special time. Crusher is about to be declared a wizard, having reached the age of 30, still a virgin. But the occasion is upset by the late arrival to the online gathering of Cuckboy, bearing the unmistakable mark on his neck that they associate with some romantic encounter. They are not wrong, as the woman, Margaret, who stayed the night, proves by arriving from another room. She happens to be a journalist and gets them talking. The conversation is the trigger that changes the way a number of them see their lives going.
Margaret and the dancing incels will not win any converts to the hatred of women, but it will nudge the audience's empathy button and entertain them a good deal.