Putting on the Dish

Polari was dying out as I approached adulthood in the late 60s. I knew some from the older men I naughtily knew but it's lost in the mists of time now in terms of speaking it. However, I was gratified to realise that I understood maybe 70% of the language used in this short even now fifty odd years later.

The other way of learning polari was to listen to Julian and Sandy on Round the Horne. My parents and I used to be in stitches at their antics but I'm sure neither of them realised where the slang came from. In fact, I'm amazed they never asked me where my knowledge of it came about when I explained one or another word.

This film took me back to those times. It was a simple pleasure to watch and I don't care about themes or characterisation. I was having a laugh just trying to take all the language in.

I'm so glad I watched this. It was a reminder of a different age that I came in on the tail end of. Things have changed so much.

Anyway, I'm off to zhoosh my riah before I vada some TV.

Had this video not been made I don't think anybody would have know about Polari. For a short this video heavily relies on the subject of Polari, seemingly forgetting character development and setting.

Setting: Polari apparently was used as a means of concealing homosexual discussion from the public yet the two gay characters are found alone in a park with no audience: Why would they need to talk in Polari in such an isolated location?

Character: We learn little from the characters (partial because of the language use) and I was left feeling like I had just listened into two egos clash for dominance: I couldn't tell who's side I should be on or even if there was more to these men than lust for one another.

It did not show the best of gay culture, despite having such a strong and unique plot device such as Polari. Revisiting this concept and having a better writer might revitalize this short.

For large public- just a curiosity thing. For the others, the minority, off course, a trip in past. A conversation in Polari who seems be more a confrontation between two men, obvious different but so simmilar, observation, desire to impose the position, the sound of words, the cigarre and the pink book and the violent gesture of the end. More than a good or bad short film, a curiosity. Interesting, off course. But for so different reasons.