If you've been in a relationship for a few years, you'll know that sex is at risk of becoming well...somewhat routine. Yes, there are books, DVDs and whatnot to you know, but it's not like you've run out of ideas; it's something else.Ten years into their marriage, Richard (John Aspill) and Sarah (Susie Mower) appear to endure middle class humdrum out in the country. On returning from his job in the City, Richard politely inquires, in between sips of a pre-dinner drink, as to how his wife's day went. "Did your lover come?""He came.""In good shape?"She plainly details her carnal afternoon with her lover as if filling us in on summary feelings of a new art opening. He counters with the functional congress he recently enjoyed with a prostitute. Nothing to get upset about; she responds with British mustard curiosity- mildly. We then meet the lovers, but wait - they closely resemble Richard and Sarah. Who really is the lover? The prostitute? Just what is going on?We are in Harold Pinter's world of fantasy; his rules of play where the strangest things go on behind closed doors. 'The Lover', written in 1963, is a comic comment on the real need for fantasy and danger in a relationship, and is even more relevant today, as we will see. This eloquent and snappy production by Limnal State will prick up your ears with its tale of adults at play. Ms. Mower makes a perfect Sarah. Her clipped, upper middle class composure is redolent of a 1960's oil painting of a haughty, imposing woman of means. Her dead-even timbre and crystal clear articulation adds a vivid humour while bringing her character out into relief. As she switches between housewife and wanton woman, she maintains a steady restrained force throughout.Mr. Aspill gamely plays his various characters with a twinkle in his eye, enjoying every moment of play. Just like Ms. Mower, he maintains a certain dignified composure that adds to the delight of the performance. Fantasy, in its contemporary electronic manifestation, has developed into a normalized social behaviour. So how relevant is 'The Lover' today? In IMVU, an online role playing game, an avatar, dressed and shaped to your liking, can date, kiss, touch and engage in all those naughty things that enter the mind but rarely manifest themselves in real relationships. Perhaps Pinter would dismiss it with a yawn; the Internet's electronic skin separating real people being too impermeable for fantasy to sparkle into a shared transformative experience. Game designers might take note. In his world, it is a shared experience - an experience that works for Richard and Sarah's relationship. Works, that is, until someone changes the rules.It is at the point where Richard decides to change the rules that Director Donald Paulferd gets a little murky. The play itself is missing the Pinter pauses (and all the better for it) and is somewhat condensed, which is why, at the play's crisis, things could have been marked more clearly with a stronger transition. It wasn't obvious, for instance, whether they were in another fantasy or whether Richard's gambit was a serious threat to the one thing that was the soap in their sexual bubble-machine. Another quibble was the interstitial used between scenes. Clips of 50's black and white movies were projected on to the rear wall as the play progressed. There may well have been some thematic connection, but it seemed a loose one and out of place.But the play works, the performances sparkle and it's just plain fun. It shows adults directly engaged in real play. And it is this - direct engagement, something which books, videos, courses and online role-playing games tend to skim or fail to flesh out. Pinter makes a clear statement that real play between two adults is the Clé d'Amour to great sex and a fulfilling relationship.I'd say more than a few people left the theatre with some ideas on how to add sparkle to their relationships. I know I did.
