WENDY HOOSE | LIVE REVIEW
Sherman Cymru, Cardiff, Wed 10 Sept
The Sherman’s new artistic director, Rachel O’Riordan, has decided to kick off the new season with something rude, crude and funny.
Jake lives in Paisley, just west of Glasgow, and Laura lives in Cumbernauld – a town that the hilariously sarcastic voice of the audio description says is “in the arse end of nowhere”. They’ve been chatting on the internet (well on Tinder really) and things have been getting hot and heavy.
Laura invites Jake over but, after his arrival, things don’t quite go to plan and neither of them get the erotic experience they were fanaticising about: Jake is useless at ‘dirty talk’ and Laura drinks her red wine cold. They both have their secrets, however, and as the night goes on they are soon fluctuating between flirting and arguing.
The script, written by Johnny McKnight, is extremely strong. It was funny, felt natural and the characters just made sense. Some serious topics were explored, particular about how we judge each other and how easily words can be misconstrued when you’re talking over text, but it didn’t feel like there was any ‘message’ being rammed down your throat. There were no straight forward conclusions, the discussions were just something to think about, and humour was sprinkled throughout.
The cast of two worked well together; Amy Conachan did good job as Laura – a woman who isn’t interested in sharing the details of her life but just wants to get her rocks off – and James Young’s seemingly ‘neddy’ Jake was outstanding.
What makes this production stand out among other comedies, however, is how it incorporates and play with parts of theatre usually only utilized in disability specific performances. Not only is there an audio description, sign language interpretation and subtitles in every showing of Wendy Hoose but they are an integral part of the humour.
The sarcy audio description (Julie Brown) is witty and judgmental of the characters, the signer (Catherine King) stops to eat a cream egg and even the subtitles use emoticons on silly fonts for a good laugh. There were lots of things to like about this production but it was the thought that went into this side of the show that made is, not only unique, but damn funny!
words HEATHER ARNOLD
Tickets: £12-£14 / £7 under 25s. Info: 029 2064 6900 / www.shermancymru.co.uk.