SEX In Suburbia is nothing new. Desperate Housewives had a regretful drunken encounter with Carry On and gave birth to these pantomime sex sketches bookended with glitzy 1990s karaoke for a full-on, hen night of bawdy comedy.
The scene is Diamond FM, a radio station carved into the warm, glowing lava lamp colours of a sprawling miniature cityscape.
One could be forgiven for thinking they’d wandered into Ann Summers; especially as a later sketch becomes a sex toy sales party.
Claire Sweeney (star and co-writer), Carl Patrick (producer) and Lindzi Germain (replacing co-star and writer Many Muden) carry between them a number of roles to enact various sex-related disasters relayed by phone-in listeners – each also played by one of the trio.
There are hints at a more prominent narrative, but that didn’t progress past its first bit of extra stage time.
The highlights are a tender, poignant moment of reconnection between a wife and her cross-dressing husband, and by chance a tasty range of worst-date-ever stories from the audience in a Blind Date take-off, in which Sweeney led the audience in the filming of an ex-shaming phone video.
The audience were cackling, cheering and singing along, but this is not a date I’ll be writing home about. I just couldn’t Get Excited.
This is not a show for the prudish, but for fans of Sweeney and the stereotypically British joy of laughing at our own failings, you’ll get your fill. The nationwide tour continues with tickets available from http://www.atgtickets.com
Review by Anna Rose
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