EntertainmentTheatre

Sex in Suburbia at the Buxton Opera House Review

SexInSurburbiaSex in Suburbia
Buxton Opera House

26 March 2015

www.buxtonoperahouse.org.uk

Reviewed by Cathy Porteus

Sex in Suburbia is set in a radio show phone in, where listeners are encouraged to call with the problematic love lives for advice from the presenters. The main presenter Penny Crowe (Lindzi Germaine) is joined by guest presenter played by Claire Sweeney – who also shares tales of her own happy life with her baby Jaxon.

The show is a good way to introduce sketches of different types of relationships, which are then played out by the cast at the front of the stage. The sketches were all really well acted, the three main cast members did a great job of playing out the problems with a comedic twist.

One of my favourite sketches was when a wife came home early to find a strange woman cleaning her house. However all is not what it seems, for the intruder Audrey turns out to be her husband indulging in some gender changing role play. It was touching to see the couple come to terms with their dual roles, as the wife makes friends with Audrey and enjoys spending time with her on a regular basis. Other stories were of a wife trying to seduce her husband, but failing because of her poor timing, and a husband using the unpacking of grocery shopping to play out his priapic feelings, much to the despair of his long suffering wife. The cast corpsed when a roughly treated baguette split in two and the audience chuckled along.

Lindzi Germaine showed brilliant comic timing in her many roles. She proved that women of all shapes and sizes can look great, her cleavage baring Ann Summers party host was particularly fun when showing off her adult wares.

The three actors also burst into song and dance routines from time to time during the show. I wasn’t sure about these interludes initially but actually they helped move the show along and the actors all had good voices too.

The only part of the show that I wasn’t too keen on was the final part, where audience members came on stage for a Blind Date style game, where they were meant to share their dating disaster stories. I found this rather awkward, as the participants seemed a bit uncomfortable, although Claire did her best to jolly them along and draw out something from each of them. This made for a bit of a slow end to the night but overall it was a great evening and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

On the night I saw the show, the audience were mostly fairly mature, but I felt the show would also be great for groups of friends of all ages looking for light-hearted entertainment.

Buxton Opera House looked gorgeous as usual, the decorative glass on the exterior  and ornate painting on the interior all looked fresh and lovely. There were plenty of helpful volunteers staffing the theatre, serving fairly priced drinks and ice creams at the interval. The Opera House is just a short walk from Buxton station and there is some on road parking near to the venue, which is free after 6pm.

Rating: 4.5/5

For other shows at Buxton Opera House visit www.buxtonoperahouse.org.uk.

Buxton Opera House, Water Street, Buxton, Derbyshire, SK17 6XN | 0845 127 2190

4 half Star

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