Sleeping Around
BT until Saturday 16th June

Sleeping Around is a very ambitious project to stage in the small BT, taking over both the early and late slots (with an interval to break). The intensive closeness of the seating, which is a feature of the BT, lends its self well to the two-person interaction in Sleeping Around, and it is a credit to the writing and quality of the leads, Richard Hough and Gwyneth Glyn Evans that they are able to hold their audience's attention for the whole duration.

The play is set in a present-day city, and takes place over the weekend from Friday night to early Monday morning. The play sub-divides into 12 scenes, with each scene carrying over one of the characters from the last. Each of the scenes explores different sexual relationships, showing in each a dominant and dependent. The themes are so diverse as virgin sex, adultery, sexual psychology and AIDS. The portrayal of the different characters by the two leads is impressive, and benefits from the excellent direction by Hannah Mackay, whose insular set and spatial direction lends intensity to the performance.

The script is pacey, despite its length, and there is an inherent fluidity hanging the play together, which is a consequence of its interrelatedness. The only criticism to be made of the play is that it is unable to delve deeply within any of the themes, and comes up short in those such as the AIDS dialogue, where it is difficult to empathise with the AIDS sufferer, whose character is only superficially developed. This is not a fault of the direction or acting, but inherent to the project of producing a play encompassing such wide-ranging themes. It is sometimes disturbing in its lucid portrayal of copulation, though even here, where it has the greatest potential to degenerate, the rapport between Hough and Glyn Evans is unsettling rather than cringe-worthy.

Sleeping Around is one of the best plays the BT has seen this term, and though it occupies the unpopular 8th week slot, it is too exciting a production to be overlooked.

Sherree Halliwell
12-06-01