Entertaining Mr Sloane
Old
Fire Station
Entertaining. To sum up a theatre production in one word is often difficult for a reviewer to do, but in the case of Entertaining Mr. Sloane, showing at the Old Fire Station Theatre this week, the title says it all, and the task of review seems simple, for a play that is, well, somewhat simple. All the characters are introduced in the first quarter of an hour, during which a middle-aged woman picks up a twenty-year-old boy she meets in the local library who is looking for a place to stay and brings him to her home, where she introduces him to her half-senile father and covertly homosexual brother, then attempts to seduce him before he's even had a chance to try out his own bed. Thus begins Mr. Sloane's entrance into the family of Kath and Ed, two siblings who spend the rest of the show competing for the boy's attentions and favour. The actors lead the audience through a farcical tale of sexuality and family relations, sometimes scandalous, sometimes outrageous, but always comical, filled with obvious puns and the conspicuous humour of a playwright known for his shock-appeal and shrewd wit.
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S. T. Stiles |