Franny Winters and her husband Harm Groespecker bound on stage to the music from The Avengers. She is clad in a black shiny catsuit, he, nipple tassels (amongst other things, mercifully). They sit at a table set for aftenoon tea and start to tell us some of their respective life stories. Thus we learn that she was part raised by confused wolves (I was a very hairy child) and his father invented the reusable condom. Together They have founded the Academy of Sexual Confidence and are here to enable their audiences to lose their inhibitions.
The laughs come thin and slow in this piece. It is classed under Theatre and completely played in character but obviously it is meant to be comedic in intent. Unfortunately the approach works against this. Confidently and consistently played, the laid-back Harm and the brash, sassy Franny together just never really get started. There are a few good gags which it would be unfair to quote but everything is unrolled at such a slow pace that interest is very difficult to sustain. That said, an audience full of clones of the lady sitting directly in front of me would have rocked the building. Also Steve from the audience handled himself (as Franny and Harm might put it) with aplomb and some dignity in what could have been a very embarrassing participation situation.
A short interlude, mainly designed to enable the gangling Harm to change into the cheapest gimp suit you have ever seen (how many have you seen?), features the sweet-faced and equally sweet-voiced Lara Conley, dressed as a ladybird, why not, singing a self-penned folk/country ballad. The one star is for her.
