Flirt Fiction

This is a diverting way to round off an evening: a silly, naughty,
promising new play from Australian writer Jessica Craig-Piper in which
a young couple stretch their sexual ranges by each attempting to write
erotic fiction for the other. They both imagine the same girl, a
waitress (“Venus”), as their muse and the fantasies start coming to
life, in a style reminiscent of Cy Coleman‘s City of Angels.

It’s nicely performed by the Australian cast, and it includes Venus
spending much of the evening in her underwear and the wife spanking
her husband (impressively hard) with a riding crop. It also features
the limpest dick you’ll see this side of the government front bench
when a strap-on makes a climactic (or, in fact, not) appearance. It’s
silly rather than sexy, and a show to laugh with rather than blush at.

Despite its quirky charm, the play is pretty thin, although more
nuanced than one might expect from the subject, and the production
lacks the pace and presentational flair which the writing seems to
lend itself to.

Flirt Fiction may be less than orgasmic but it’s far from limp.

– Benet Catty