As the opening sound-track sends us back in time through the 90s and 80s, a row of empty chairs is progressively filled by the talented actors of The Wardrobe Ensemble. Each is dressed in period clothing; wide necked shirts, a tank top, a dazzling jumpsuit and flares. The narrator loudly exhorts the cast to take advantage the new found sexual freedoms delivered to them in the sixties: ‘This is it… grab it!’ But the assembled line of young people don’t seem so sure. We soon discover that having sex is a tricky business. The skilfully intertwined stories in this show illustrate the problematic path to the bedroom for our characters. Some just really want to have sex, others would if they knew how and eventually some don’t because it’s nicer just to hold hands. And alongside these deftly crafted plots lines are themes of gender identity, homosexuality and pornography.
The Wardrobe Ensemble are a group of theatre artists from Bristol working together to make new dramas that dissect the twenty-first century experience. Their previous works includes plays about the opening of a Swedish furniture store (RIOT) and the Chilean Mining Accident of 2010 (33). This work, which played at the Edinburgh Festival last year to great revues, is presented as part of the Tobacco Factory Theatres Beyond season.
The show draws firmly on the idea of sixties free love, the pill and women’s sexual emancipation. Lady Chatterley’s Lover and The Female Eunuch are used to anchor the cultural agenda and the music of David Bowie knits the plot together. With the help of some stylish funk guitar and space-hoppers the cast work proficiently to blend the serious subjects with comic moments as they flit between acting and narrating. It is witty, entertaining and inventive although the themes rarely extend beyond well told truisms and the characters are mostly stereotypes. The idea that people have hidden struggles with sex and sexuality is nothing new but what it lacks in subject originality it more than makes up for in engaging presentation; it’s an amusing, synchronised, non-stop romp from start to finish. There is plenty of dynamism from each of the actor’s enthusiastic performances and the choreography is both animated and subtle. The intimate moments are handled with depth and feeling.
In his poem Annus Mirabilis Philip Larkin said that sex didn’t start until 1963. The individuals in this play continue to struggle with it in 1972 and the flash-forward scenes show that even today we still haven’t worked out what it’s really all about. With the actors sweating and out of breathe we reach the climax. For some there is an awakening, for others relief. One character feels let down and frustrated but I think you will be heartily fulfilled by this delightful show. ★★★★☆ Adrian Mantle 11ty March 2016
