Edinburgh Fringe 2022
S-ex-iety
Purple Soup Crew asbl
Genre: Comedy, Fringe Theatre, New Writing
Venue: French Institute in Scotland - Salle Emilienne Moreau-Evrard
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Traumatised by inadvertently appearing as a sexy secretary in a porn film, Missy has returned to find if she can gather sympathy at home from her two flatmates. One is excited by the whole episode whilst the other is intrigued and more than slightly curious, almost perversely. Over a series of conversations, the subject of porn for the women of society becomes the focus of whether it is acceptable for women to watch it, as well as appear in it. A variety of areas of opinion are discussed including what is professional and what a phone camera has to do with the amateur variety.
Review
There are plenty of opinions on porn. From the prudish to the addictive, it gathers some amount of discussion. With women it can gather more because the way in which it portrays sex, the way it manages to hook the young and the supposed liberation of each and every new generation who discovers that they can tip the boundaries a little further than their parents did. It always brings the subject back to the surface.
Here it has another script attempting to make some sense of its sensibilities through a cast of young actors and characters who may just have found that they are challenged by it. It seeks to bring some focus to the debate but there are areas where it brings some confusion. The switch between the porn industry/set and their homely life needs more than a chair and a newspaper to delineate for the audience. The viewpoints of each character open up the debate but what is sorely lacking is some more emotional depth to the two flatmates. Missy is having a crisis and they seem to be less than sympathetic.
There are however some nice touches. The watching of the porn with them staring at us the audience was a stroke of directorial genius as it reversed the embarrassment and heightened the point of it all. But there were less successful areas, not least having one character seemingly so naïve and another so desperate to hear more and perhaps even experience it. It was not believable that they appeared not to have discussed it or have an opinion about it until now. It seemed a little forced. But hats off to the acapella which was tremendous.
The performance space was used in a creative manner but, at times the stage felt too big for the performances. Perhaps lighting could have drawn it closer to us and again heightened our unease at the very topic.
Overall, the script needs to examine what people think about porn and the entire sex industry in more depth, giving us characters whose views may be challenged. Having a friend upset because the only person who was not having sex was her, whilst the embarrassment of being there could lead to the possible end of her career is rich in debate! I left with more questions than answers but not in a challenged manner. I wondered why such decent actors had not pushed more against the script to give us more of their generation and their thinking in a stronger and more nuanced manner. I was never, however, less than engaged throughout.
