Cock - Dylan Trowbridge Interview

Since its premiere, Cock has stood as a definitive work of contemporary British drama, famous for its staccato dialogue and its refusal to use props or scenery. This April, London welcomes a new, international perspective on the work via Canada’s Talk Is Free Theatre. Directed by Dylan Trowbridge, this production arrives at the COLAB Theatre following a successful international tour. By utilising a minimalist, 34-seat arena, Trowbridge aims to restore the original "raw immediacy" that makes Bartlett’s script so enduring. 

Ahead of the April 22nd London opening, we spoke with Dylan about the challenges of staging such an intimate production and how the play’s questions regarding sexuality and pressure have shifted in a global context.

What can you tell me about your production of Cock?
Our production of Cock is about love’s capacity to make us feel euphoric joy and incapacitating pain. The play operates in that magnificent, frightening, volatile, deeply exposed place. We have set this play about domestic relationships inside a dangerous space; a violent space; an arena for human combat. Prompted by Mike Bartlett, there are no props, no scenery, no mime. There is nowhere to hide.  Pushing the boundaries of proximity, our audience surrounds the action, breathing the same air as the characters at their most exposed, vulnerable, hopeful, terrified moments.
 
Our production prioritizes intimacy, liveness, tension and impulsivity. 

Beneath the cynicism and nastiness of the characters and the verbal violence of the argument, there is a beautiful, romantic heart. Our production is a call to action to live bravely, to seize joy, to seize love.

Jakob Ehman and Michael Torontow in Cock.

 
This production has travelled from Canada to Japan, South Africa, and Brazil. Having seen how audiences across four continents react to Mike Bartlett’s text, what has surprised you most about what stays 'universal' versus what feels specifically British? 
Having worked on this piece for two years and toured it internationally, the depth and universality of its emotional core is constantly revealing itself.  It’s about love.  It’s about four people carrying pain trying to be happy. It is about living proactively, urgently and authentically.  In our interpretation of the play, the enemy is the concept of people going through the motions of being alive,going through the motions of being in love. 
 
We were doing the show in Kyoto last winter.  It was an afternoon show, and the audience was disarmingly quiet. Virtually silent throughout, with quiet, polite applause at the end. Then we all walked together to a bus stop to get a bus back to our hotel.  There was a woman standing there, alone, quietly weeping.  She recognized us and told us in broken English how deeply moved she was by the experience. So, while the play is specifically British and deals directly with questions of sexuality, it transcends cultural barriers because it speaks to audiences on a deeply emotional level. Most people can relate to sudden, urgent love and devastating heartbreak; to being torn between identity and impulse. 
 
What makes the play uniquely British is its extraordinary linguistic rigour. This text demands dexterous thinking, verbal precision, sharp wit, and rhetoric.  Argument is the engine of the drama. Words are weapons. There is nothing casual, nothing thrown away.  The play is 90 minutes of vigorous intellectual and emotional combat. 
 
What does it feel like to bring a 'modern British classic' back to London after touring it globally? Do you feel a different kind of pressure or a sense of 'bringing it home'?
London is my favourite city in the world. I lived here in 2009-10 when I was performing in Dirty Dancing at the Aldwych. It was inspiring to live in a city that values great theatre and great acting. Cock is one of the best pieces of dramatic writing of this century, and it is a thrill to bring it back to London after touring it globally. We approached and interpreted the play like a classic. London audiences will experience the play in an entirely new way.
 
And yes, I absolutely feel a kind of pressure! James MacDonald and Marianne Elliot —who directed the 2009 and 2022 productions respectively—are idols of mine. London audiences routinely witness theatre artists operating at the absolute height of their powers. But I believe in the work we have done, in the brilliance of our cast, and in the heart of our production. 
 
You’ve stripped the staging down to a 34-seat arena. In such a 'raw' environment, the audience becomes a silent character. How does that level of proximity change the way you’ve directed the actors’ physical language? 
In our production the audience makes up the 4 walls of whatever room the characters are in.  They are the vessel for the action. The container for the conflict. With the audience that close, physical and verbal precision is key. Every movement, every breath, every moment of eye contact resonates. So, we have been meticulous with the physical language of the piece.  
 
We also explore moments of “radical non-projection.”  Playing deeply personal scenes in very small rooms gives actors the freedom to play the reality of that space. With their scene partner inches away and the audience sitting next to them, there is an opportunity to be verbally intimate that doesn’t typically exist in traditional theatre.
 
Our mission is to create a theatrical experience for the audience is active, tense and invigorating.

Jakob Ehman and Tess Benger in Cock.

Bartlett originally wrote the play to be performed without props or scenery, like a cockfight. How does your specific staging at COLAB Theatre lean into—or perhaps challenge—that original 'arena' concept?
We have embraced Bartlett’s prompt that the play should be performed without props or scenery.  Our production is radically minimalist. This approach places full focus on the humanity of the characters and exposes their hopes and fears in a way that is raw and true. We have also drawn inspiration from Bartlett’s impulse that the play is cockfight, setting it in a tiny arena designed for violence A kind of fight club. Rather than challenging this concept, we are endeavouring to intensify it, by making the arena smaller, bringing the audience closer and immersing action within the single rows of audience seating.
 
The play explores the pressure to define oneself. Since it premiered 15 years ago, our cultural conversation around sexuality and gender has evolved rapidly. How has your interpretation of the character John’s indecision changed to reflect 2026 sensibilities?
Through this process I have been adamant that John is not indecisive. He is torn in half. Indecision suggests a kind of passivity where the impulses are not strong enough to drive a decision. John is actively experiencing profound, all-consuming love with two different people. In one case it is with a man he has loved for many years. In another with a woman he has just met.  His attraction to W transcends sexuality and sexual identity. It is involuntary and intense and reveals to him a brand of happiness that he didn’t know existed. But it is completely at odds with his sense of identity.
 
Since this play was written in 2009, language surrounding sexual and gender identity has become much more specific and sophisticated. There are words for sexual identities that were not in popular vernacular that that time.  And this is a beautiful, positive thing. 
 
But these words would not solve John’s dilemma. John’s agony is not, in our production, the result of not having the words to define his specific sexual tastes. He is gay man who has fallen madly in love with a singular, specific woman. This is why he passionately rejects suggestions that this means he is bisexual.
 
John’s epiphany is that, for him, love is driven by who the person is and what the person does. Without making any attempt to be overt about this, we have set the play in the year it was written to justify the absence of terms around sexual identity that the characters would be likely to bring up in 2026.
 
There is a brutal honesty in the dialogue. As a director, how do you balance the 'verbal sparring' of the play with the genuine emotional vulnerability required so the audience doesn't just see a fight, but a tragedy?
The brutality of the dialogue is a biproduct of two beautiful things: the depth of the characters’ love and the intensity of the characters’ needs. They are operating from a place of love and fear. 
 
F is vicious.  But his brutality is motivated by one thing: his unshakeable need to protect his son’s happiness. The brutal honesty and biting edge of Bartlett’s dialogue is hilarious and shocking.  But our job is to mine the depths of why the characters speak the way they do. These are good people. Our brilliant cast navigates the violence of the dialogue with such vulnerability. So that the audience witnesses the cost and the depth of the conflict—not just the spectacle. 
 
Talk Is Free Theatre is known for being critically acclaimed and often daring. What about this specific production reflects the company’s core identity as it lands in London?
Talk is Free Theatre embraces and optimises those qualities of the medium that make it unique: liveness, intimacy, proximity, immediacy. Our production of Cock is raw, spontaneous, wild and alive. The audience is in the bedrooms of the characters. Talk is Free is an ensemble-driven company. There is deep trust amongst the collaborators.  This allows for acting that is more exposed, more vulnerable. The immersive setting and the vulnerability and impulsivity of the performances in Cock create an experience that is different every night. 
 
Which character in the play do you find it hardest to agree with?
The impossibility of answering this question is a testament to the brilliance of Bartlett’s writing.  Like Shaw, the play works because everyone is right. The most satisfying and riveting dramatic conflict comes from the collision of opposing righteous forces.

Kevin Bundy, Michael Torontow, Jakob Ehman and Tess Benger.

What is the one prop or set piece you are most glad you don't have in this show?
A dining table. There is a rich tradition in the theatre of superb, explosive family arguments happening around a dining table. Our dining table is the space itself, and the entire audience has a seat. 

If this play were a musical genre, what would it be? 
Post-punk. It’s raw and confrontational, but there are surprising depths and emotional tension beneath the surface.
 
Complete this sentence: "After 90 minutes in this 34-seat arena, I want the audience to feel…" 
…electrified, alive, courageous, inspired to love deeply and bravely.

Is John a hero, a victim, or just a human being in a mess? 
John has moments of heroism and moments of victimhood, but ultimately is a human being in a mess.

What is the one "Mike Bartlett-ism" you’ve grown to love most during rehearsals?
His ability to write riveting, explosive, impulsive conflict with extraordinary precision and authenticity. 

If you could have a drink with any character from Cock, who are you picking?
W. She’s hilarious. She’s storyteller and an optimist. She wears her heart on her sleeve.  She’s not guarded, she’s open. She would talk about real things. 
 
What would you hope someone takes away from seeing Cock?
 I think that all great theatre should be a call to action. And I think theatre should make people feel more alive. My hope is that our production of this great play inspires people to seize joy, to live with urgency and to love courageously.

Cock runs at COLAB Theatre in London from 22nd April until 2nd May 2026. For tickets visit https://tickets.colabtheatre.co.uk/event/65916?date=2026-04

Michael Torontow, Kevin Bundy and Tess Benger.