Sexual Perversity in Chicago
@ the Burton Taylor Studio to Sat 4th May

This is entertainment. If you want to be titillated, thrilled and laugh until you need to sit down (the show is presented en promenade) this is the show for you. David Mamet's pacey script punches precisely throughout and Martin Roe's direction is crisp, fresh & constantly engaging: there was not a moment when I felt the usual need to study my shoes or admire the timbered ceiling.

A powerful cast, last seen together in Spring Awakening, combine beautifully, with an ease born of confident familiarity with themselves and the four characters of the piece. The transitions between bedroom, bar and beach are elegantly fluid and our adjustments as an audience - toes stepped upon and elbows brushed - are as friendly as the typical tiffs and tongues of twenty-something love we are witness to.

Ian Hughes is splendid as the laconical Danny Shapiro, in possession of Olympic-class eyebrows and a wicked sense of timing that knows when to push our credulity into fits of youthful giggles. Christopher Ryan Richards is dirty, laughable and loveable; his intimate reflections on the Adult Movie moved even the most mature of our audience to mischievous laughter.

The 'ladies' of the piece, Emma Campbell-Webster and Polly Findlay, sparkle throughout, with both intelligence and the desperate sadness of the spirit of free love that inhabits our late 70's Chicago universe. Findlay as Joan Webber takes us expertly on a whirlwind tour of empowered female emotion, never passive; never fulfilled. Campbell-Webster's teacher is in total control of her class and her audience, dragging us onto her stage to dress us down for unmentionable pre-pubescent play that would bring a smile to the most reluctant of theatre-goers.

If you miss OUDS' production of Sexual Perversity you miss a cracking rollercoaster of a production that, whilst explicit and evocative of an age of only embryonic political correctness, will not fail to amuse and allow you to see caricatures of yourself in sharp, predatory relief. Book your ticket.

James Dare