The Liars is set in a near future where homosexuality has become the norm. Families consist of two same-sex parents and one or two children. All men have to donate sperm to enable women to be impregnated by IVF and each woman has to have two children at some time in her life. Heterosexuality has become illegal or at least strongly frowned upon. As a result of this, wars have ended and crime has almost disappeared.
There are two locations used throughout the play. The first scene is set in a school, where the prim, authoritarian headmistress is fervently rooting out all traces of heterosexuality, even to the extent of grilling her pupils parents about their sex lives. When one of the male pupils begins to show an interest in a girl, she shows the class a film of a man and woman having sex in order to show them how unpleasant it is.
The second location is a nuclear family, father, father and son. One parent is an extremely conservative Daily Mail reader; the other, a secret Independent reader, has fantasies about having sex with a woman. This is anathema to his partner who wants to know whats wrong with old-fashioned British homosexuality?.
The performers do a very good job and they take their roles seriously, which adds greatly to the comedy effect. The first night had a near-capacity audience which thoroughly enjoyed the performance. Recommended.
