Writer Ivo de Jager on the premiere of Sweetmeat at Old Red Lion
We spoke with Ivo de Jager, writer for the stage, screen and radio, about his new show Sweetmeat that's premiering at the Old Red Lion this November. Inspired by the Rotenburg Cannibal case in which Armin Meiwes murdered and ate a voluntary victim, it's a dark drama exploring sadistic desires fueled by online echo chambers, childhood trauma and gay loneliness.

Tell us a bit about the show?
Sweetmeat is about Sigmund and Christian, two men who meet through a twist of fate and stumble into a passionate, all-consuming relationship that barrels towards a point of no return. We watch it grow in complexity, and see how their individual traumas craft an echo chamber that makes their connection strong, yet poisonous in its insularity. The show is tense, and there's a sense of inevitable doom, but it's also a genuine love story.
Sweetmeat deals with difficult topics like sadistic desires and queer loneliness. How do you handle these sensitive themes while keeping the audience connected to the characters?
Dignity and sensitivity were guiding principles while I was writing the show, but I also wanted to make sure I wasn't compromising on the themes and content. The cast and crew have the same philosophy. Although the fantasies and situations depicted in the play are very specific and extreme (sadomasochism, cannibalism, etc), they tap into universal feelings of shame, isolation, and intrusive desire. Even as the circumstances of the characters become more alien to the average viewer, the dynamics and emotions remain firmly grounded, and the play explores the reasons for Sigmund’s possessive sadism and Christian’s self-hating, yet exuberant masochism. We don't point and laugh or gawk, we seek to understand, and I think that really comes across, and hooks the viewer.
The internet plays a big role in amplifying dark fantasies in Sweetmeat. How do you think online spaces impact queer mental health and feelings of isolation today?
It's a thorny issue. On one hand, the prevalence of internet use can help us connect to people who better relate to us, and that can be life-saving, particularly for people in marginalised people. At the same time, it's extremely easy to fall into communities that facilitate unhealthy beliefs and habits. In Sweetmeat, Sigmund’s sexual interests lead him to online spaces that glorify gore and violence, and because he isn't able to be open about his feelings in reality to anyone except a person who encourages him, he loses perspective. It won't usually have fatal consequences in everyday life, but it's very easy to have a false impression of what's appropriate or even just common if you only interact with people who share a narrow interest, fetish, and/or ideology.
One of the points of the play is impressing the importance of openness to uncomfortable topics. There's a fair amount of lip service paid to mental health and LGBT acceptance nowadays, but in truth, it's restricted to surface-level, “marketable” topics. If your mental health struggles go beyond being a bit sad and burnt out, and if you want to discuss trauma and uncomfortable elements of your queer identity, it's difficult even within communities which should facilitate those conversations. This is true online as well, with the growing censorship of topics considered unfriendly to “the algorithm.” Art, at least, should continue to boldly cover those areas.
Sigmund and Christian’s relationship shifts from friendship to something much darker. What inspired their dynamic, and what do you hope audiences learn from their journey?
The relationship was inspired by the Armin Meiwes true crime case, which involved the consensual murder and cannibalism of Bernd Brandes. They spent a while talking online after connecting on a fetish forum, but only spent one or two days together in person, knowing their meeting would end in blood. I cribbed Meiwes's isolated upbringing for Sigmund and the suicide of Brandes's mother and his upbringing by a homophobic father for Christian, but I drastically changed their personalities, backgrounds, and circumstances to explore the issues I wanted to highlight. I want to tell an interesting and provocative story, but beyond being given food for thought (so to speak), I hope audiences will be more open to being made a little uncomfortable in the art they consume, and in their daily lives. At the same time, boundaries are extremely important, and that's another takeaway from the show.
Can you tell us your favourite line from the show?
It’s hard to pick one, since I’m usually more satisfied with scenes as a whole rather than single lines, but I think this one, which is spoken about a minute into the show in a sort of in media res moment, captures what makes Sigmund and Christian’s relationship fascinating:
CHRISTIAN: Yes. It’s going to be perfect. I was born to feel my blood vessels burst under your teeth.
Do you have any other projects in the pipeline?
Yes! I recently finished the script for a one-hour one-person show about a language interpreter who stalks an MEP, and I’m hoping to shop it around a few festivals next year. I’m also in the character design phase for a comic about Regency-era bisexual BDSM antics, which should span about 300 pages if I stick to my script. The duality of man…
Sweetmeat will run at the Old Red Lion 5 - 23 November 2024. More information and tickets available here: https://www.oldredliontheatre.co.uk/sweetmeat.html
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