Yet Cock is more provocative than even its title might suggest, with much to say about sexuality, gender, and the ways in which labels, even the ones we’ve chosen, limit us.

Or is John instead the one being manipulated by those who desire him? “That’s the most generous way into the character,” Bailey says. It’s a talky play, but Bailey gives a muscular performance, embodying John’s inner turmoil as someone who’s so addicted to being desired that he ends up becoming kind of a-well, it’s in the title.

He stars as John, a man in a long-term gay relationship who sleeps with a woman, causing a messy love triangle. That’s the name of the play, written by Mike Bartlett, that Bailey, 34, headlines now on the West End, in a sparse, spiky production directed by two-time Tony winner Marianne Elliott. A woman at a nearby table looks up, possibly scandalized. “ Cock!” Bailey says brightly, over lunch on a sunny London afternoon. He chose something that he knew would be a challenge. After starring in the second season of Bridgerton-the lush period drama that has become Netflix’s most watched English-language series ever-the actor Jonathan Bailey could have done anything.