Naked Hope depicts the legendary Quentin Crisp at two distinct phases of his extraordinary life. Firstly in the late 1960s in his filthy Chelsea flat – “Don’t lose your nerve: after the first four years the dirt won’t get any worse”. Here Quentin surveys a lifetime of degradation and rejection. Repeatedly beaten for being flamboyantly gay as early as the 1930s, but also ostracised simply for daring to live life on his own terms.

The second part of the play transitions the audience to New York in the 1990s. Here a much older Quentin, finally embraced by society, regales the audience with his sharply-observed, hard-earned philosophy on how to have a lifestyle: “Life will be more difficult if you try to become yourself. But avoiding this difficulty renders life meaningless. So discover who you are. And be it. Like mad!”.

Naked Hope is a glorious, truthful and uplifting celebration of a genuinely unique human being, and of the urgent necessity to be yourself. It debuted at the Off-West End St. James Theatre, and has toured the UK ever since. In January 2019, it will make its Off-Broadway debut at 54 Below.

It is directed by EastEnders star Linda Marlowe, much acclaimed for her own solo work including Berkoff’s Women, while Mark Farrelly’s West End credits include Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? opposite Matthew Kelly. He is also the author/performer of a second successful solo play, The Silence of Snow: The Life of Patrick Hamilton.