The Sexual Awakening of Peter Mayo is the story of a sexually repressed man accidentally stumbling onto the world of swinging and no-frills sex after a text goes awry. The script is filled with bawdy humour and, given the rather ominous title, is surprisingly witty and not merely a procession of Carry On-style puns and sex gags. It treats the subject matter realistically, which does leave one to wonder how the play was researched. At moments it can be genuinely hilarious; Peter claims to have learned how sex worked from a tortured Thunderbirds metaphor and there is a scene where he climaxes to the theme tune.The action flows well, though the show is somewhat one-key. Peter Mayo himself is something of a cliché, the classic insecure and sexually repressed geek, and the plot twists are rather obvious. The message of the show is that in spite of people claiming that swinging is easy, in reality it is very difficult indeed to find sex without strings, a message that rings fairly true.The set and lighting are simple to the point of being absent, with a cube of blue fluorescent tubing used to represent the internet in scenes when Peter trawls swinging websites inexpertly for a suitable one-night stand.In spite of a somewhat clichéd plot and characters, the Sexual Awakening of Peter Mayo has much to recommend it and If you enjoy racey humour full of innuendo (and often no innuendo at all) very much set in the modern day, this is the show for you.
