He wanted to show that sex can be “beautiful”, but also that there’s much about the process that’s “just not fun”. Naturally, 100 Boyfriends has already been labelled as “radical” for refusing to look away from queer sex in all its glory – but Brontez Purnell doesn’t view it that way. In fact, it manages to straddle the line between being laugh-out-loud funny and powerfully moving. That might make it sound staid, but 100 Boyfriends is anything but. Over the course of three acts and an epilogue, Purnell interrogates capitalism, class, racism, homophobia and mental illness – all through the lens of man-on-man action.
Some of the vignettes explore intimacy and love, while others delve into sex that stems from boredom. The result is a searing collection of short stories that delves into the intricacies of sex between men.
