This show starts off in a very relaxed way.
We walk into the theatre to see a mini bar waiting for us at the front of the stage. We took the opportunity to get drinks and take them to our seats.
The performers were already on the stage. A few of them came over and chatted to people sitting in the front rows.
When the show proper started it was anything but laidback, it kind of explodes into action. Rebecca Massey plays a sex coach and public speaker who rallies everyone with her dictum that bonking is great, that the more bonking you can do the better, and if you can bonk all the time that is the best! Massey is fierce, scarily intense.
The show soon shifts gears. Massey then becomes an editor for a hip magazine who has received a new book entitled ‘The 44 Sex Acts That Will Change Your Life’. She asks leading journalist Celina to review it, telling Celine she will have to review it by Friday with the understanding that she will have to perform all 44 of the acts so that she can properly assess the book.
Celine isn’t all keen to take on the assignment. She’s badly broke and doesn’t even have the money to pay the rent. She decides she has to do it. Celine’s next hurdle is that she currently doesn’t have a boyfriend. In a scene told with wry humour she rings around some of the men she knows but her history with them isn’t great and it all leads to a dead end.
This leaves her with only one possibility, nerdy office mail boy and eco-activist, Aleb. Aleb, not quite believing his luck, says he is up for it, and so begins thie almighty journey to get in all the acts by the Friday deadline without burning out.
Its a very clever scenario by playwright David Finnigan.and he takes us on a fast paced, very funny and playful ride. Finnigan even comes up with an ecological sub plot revolving around Aleb, though it did not feel so necessary.
There wasn’t any gratuitous nudity, everything was inferred, and creatively imagined with the use of fruits and vegetables and some handy accessories.
Sheridan Harbridge, who also directed, and Michael Whalley were very likeable and funny as the couple getting their rocks off. Rebecca Massey was fiery and manic in her roles.
Veteran comic performer Keith Robinson was outstanding in his role as the narrator. Priscilla Doueihy played multiple roles, deftly using different voices to great comic effect.
Summing up, ’44 Sex Acts In One Week’ has a lot of fun exploring the world of kink from every which way.
An Up Late Belvoir and Moonshine and Tits co-production, ’44 Sex Acts In. One Week’ only has a very brief five night season running downstairs at Belvoir Street. There is only one performance remaining, tomorrow night, Sunday20th December, 2020 at 9pm. The show runs for seventy minutes straight through.