Casual Encounters
★★★☆☆ Dark sex comedy
Hill Street Theatre, (Venue 41): Mon 19 – Sun 25 Aug 2024
Review by Allan Wilson
It is Saturday night and, following advice from a counsellor that he and his wife should have more sex, middle-aged Morningside banker, James, is looking forward to his first experience of wife swapping.
So begins No Logo Productions’ revival of writer and director Andy Moseley’s dark sex comedy, Casual Encounters. The show was last seen at the Fringe in 2014, with the current production initially revived by Edinburgh People’s Theatre under Moseley’s own direction earlier this year for the SCDA one-act festival, when it came second in the Edinburgh heat.
Ade Smith and Suzanne Senior. Pic: Andy Moseley
While Casual Encounters is a comedy based on sex, there are also definite undertones of class, status, isolation and the importance of not losing face.
The couple’s sex life has not been as it might, and James (Ade Smith) has interpreted their marriage guidance counsellor’s advice that they should “try something new” as a cue for a spot of wife swapping. They now await the first respondents to their advert…
Jennifer, portrayed by Suzanne Senior, is less enthusiastic about the evening’s plans than her husband, worried that she may not have prepared enough food for the evening, and disappointed to be missing Strictly.
nibbles
Their guests for the evening, Peter (David Roach) and Annette (Kellie Edie), are significantly younger. During the ensuing evening, Jennifer’s nibbles go down well. And it can be revealed, without giving too much away, that there may well be a little light bondage involved in the horse-play.
Not that this is about sex really. It’s about trust and control, how people act when taken out of their comfort zones and the comedy of those who are so unwilling to lose face that they put themselves in jeopardy.
Kellie Edie and David Roach. Pic: Andy Moseley
The performances are competent, with Smith portraying James as a confident man, who thinks he is in control of his life, but struggles when he finds he isn’t. Senior’s prim and proper Jennifer seems subservient to her husband at first, but has a hidden strength that comes to the surface.
There is an interesting contrast in the performances of Roach and Edie as Peter and Annette. Roach’s Peter is much more perfunctory in his attitude. Edie, however, portrays Annette as a more menacing figure. Gillian Scott, who makes a brief late appearance, does so with a wry humour.
gently witty
Moseley provides some gently witty lines, but there are times when the action needs to be a little stronger.
The play takes an enjoyable peek behind the curtains of suburban life, but is a little bit too gentle and polite to be particularly memorable.
Running time: 50 minutes (no interval)
Hill Street Theatre (Dunedin Theatre), 19 Hill St, EH2 3JP (Venue 41)
Monday 19 – Sunday 25 August 2024
Daily: 3.30pm
Details and tickets at: Book here
Website: www.nologoproductions.com
Facebook: @NoLogoProductions
Instagram: @nologoproductions
X: @NoLogoPlays
Ade Smith, Kellie Edie, David Roach and Suzanne Senior. Pic: Andy Moseley
ENDS
