Out Write Productions
25 August 2012
Sex Ed: The Musical bills itself as a show
which will tell you “Everything you never wanted to know about sex”. I think
that should be altered slightly – it’s everything you thought you never wanted to know about sex, until you witnessed it
all put into a series of very catchy songs and hilarious dances, at which point
you couldn’t imagine how you wouldn’t want to hear about it.
The
inaugural production of new theatre company Out Write Productions, this show
caused hysterical laughter to break out throughout the audience as the riotously
funny cast of seven take sixteen-year-old Gilbert and Gladys – along with the
audience – on a journey through all the ins and outs (yes, pun intended – I stole
it from the show) of sex, from contraception to technique and positions to sexual
orientation. It’s all very silly, of course: sperm is represented by sock
puppets, STIs are likened to cheese and phrases such as “vaginally tardy” are
thrown around the stage. But the show manages to tread the line between funny
and crude with skill, and ensure that serious issues are not trivialised whilst
also having a lot of fun. This extends to the set, props and scene changes: the
use of labels and signs indicates a home-made aspect to the show, but rather
than highlighting any sense of unprofessionalism, cardboard signs such as “If
We Had a Budget This Would Be A Scene Change” or “Focus On The Sign!” bring an
extra dash of charming humour to the show.
Bethan
Rigby and Isobel Wolff steal the show with their hilarious characterisation of
Barbara and Glenda respectively. Rigby’s sense of physical comedy is spot-on,
uproariously over-the-top at times but also touching in her own journey of
self-discovery. Wolff’s motherly naivety is a brilliant foil to Agatha’s (Emily
Snee) brashness and Hildegard’s (Lizzie Hartley) hopeless disorganisation and
never-ending pregnancies. Vicky Buxton as Bob also provides many laughs with
her forthright nature, and has one of the strongest voices in the musical
numbers. The songs are all performed with gusto, and credit should really be
given to all the cast for their ability to make it through numbers such as ‘Swallow My Pride’ with a straight face – there certainly wasn’t a single
one to be found in the audience. Moments of hilarity came one after the other: from
enforced audience participation on the part of two unsuspecting theatregoers
who were made to wear ‘W**ker’ labels, to the transformation of shy Gilbert
into a “kinky” lover, the show combined a wicked sense of humour and a warm heart
which was encapsulated perfectly by the closing number of ‘Go F**k Yourself’.
There
is a plethora of shows at the Fringe who have decided to stick ‘:The Musical’
onto the end of their title – enough to make me nervous about them all. Yet Sex Ed: The Musical certainly does not
merit this anxiety, as the hilarious script and the relentless energy of the
cast make for an hour-and-a-bit of unstoppable fun and hilarity.
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