‘Oh yeah! Harder! Do it to me!’ Would you eavesdrop on your neighbours’ sex life? It’s hard to not be a little curious about what other people get up to. Certainly the two couples featured in this production have a positive fascination with the moans of pleasure they can hear through the walls. James and Hilary are middle-aged and middle-class - the kids are at Granny and Grandpa’s for the weekend, so they’ve got the house to themselves. Kerry and Sonny have just woken up with cracking hangovers and are intent on curing them with Irn Bru. Each couple bickers and eavesdrop and gets down to business - but as a show it’s surprisingly light and easy to watch.
The lightness might be a result of the delivery - the acting style is close to a TV sitcom, churning out jokes and quips in quick succession. Jessica Baglow and Matt Green as Kerry and Sonny particularly excel in their couple’s tiffs, toeing the line between joking and insulting. The name-calling is glee-inducing - I’ll let you ponder the insult ‘carrot-smuggler’. The small stage is used well: there’s no wall between the two pairs of neighbours, only lighting to shift the audience’s focus from one side of the stage to the other.
It’s not quite as filthy as you might expect from the title and the premise might lead you to expect. The on-stage shenanigans are brief, fully clothed, and never much discussed. It feels oddly tame for a show that’s branding itself as shocking and explicit. A production that could have been dark and deviant ends up falling back on mummy-porn cliches. As a result, The Sex Lives of Others doesn’t seem very substantial - it’s well-produced and skilfully acted but after the unexpectedly premature ending, you’re left not quite satisfied.
