Behind Closed Doors
★★★★☆ Brave
Braw Venues @ Hill Street (Venue 41): Wed 12 – Sun 30 Aug 2026
Review by Ed Boulter-Comer
Behind Closed Doors from Studio Muiz at Braw Venues @ Hill Street for the second and third weeks of the Fringe, is as important as it is intense.
Corey Muizelaar’s script follows the arc of the flawed relationship between Jude and Charlie, in a powerful look at the way indirect, historical trauma plays out in the lives of individuals. It is violent, intimate, tender and sad.
Corey Muizelaar with Ben Robert Cunningham in Behind Closed Doors. Pic: Jed Shots.
Muizelaar explores the damage gay people can do to one another, without giving his characters excuses. That is a brave and open thing to do, more so when one considers that the piece is autobiographical and based on his own lived experience.
Behind Closed Doors works due to the central performances. Muizelaar, himself, is exceptional, playing Jude with a fragile physicality that hints at the character’s softer nature. He is unafraid to make Jude genuinely pathetic at points and avoids any attempt to portray him merely as a victim.
Edinburgh based actor Ben Robert Cunningham is a superb Charlie. He pulls off the feat of making him trustworthy, attractive and devastatingly violent. Cunningham avoids any sense of caricature, making the aggression only one aspect of a much richer and real human. It is hugely impressive.
intimate
Director Jason Marc-Williams wisely collaborates with Lucy Curry as Intimacy Coordinator, as the play moves into the characters’ sex lives. That said, perhaps the most intimate scene available on the Fringe this year, is the sequence where Marc-Williams has Charlie gently dressing Jude for a formal event. It is a quiet, loving and sensitive respite in the play and a beautifully staged piece of acting.
With a long producing credit list including, this is a play that has intentions larger than a Fringe run. Those intentions are not misplaced.
Behind Closed Doors is part of the next wave of queer, particularly cis gay male, art. It looks at what happens when laws are finally in order, but lives are not. Rejecting, or perhaps never coming into contact with middle-class gay notions of open relationships, the piece puts lie to the idea that “everything is alright now.” This is fearless and necessary theatre.
Running time: One hour (no interval).
Braw Venues @ Hill Street (Alba Theatre), 19 Hill St EH2 3JP (Venue 41).
Wednesday 12 – Sunday 30 August 2026.
Daily: 3.15pm.
Tickets and details: Book here at EdFringe.com.
Tickets direct from venue: Book here.
Guildford Fringe: The Star Inn, Quarry Street, Guildford GU1 3TY
Friday 17 September 2026
One performance: 7.30pm.
Tickets and details: Book here..
Studio Muiz website: www.studiomuiz.com
Facebook: @studiomuiz
Instagram: @studiomuiz
Corey Muizelaar and Ben Robert Cunningham in Behind Closed Doors. Pic: Jed Shots.
The Behind Closed Doors pre-set. Pic: Sophie Stubbs.
ENDS
