Three couples (two straight, one gay) find themselves suddenly within each other's orbit at 3 in the morning when the coitus of one of them is suddenly interrupted by a throwaway remark. Since the woman Nancy (Lucy Akhurst) cries out to her lover Ben (James Callis), "Do me! Do me!! Do me!! Do me!!! Do me!!! Do me you hook-nosed Jew!", as she climaxes, it's no wonder he's put off his stride.
That's just one of the Things You Shouldn't Say Past Midnight, and Peter Ackerman's sex comedy quickly hits its stride as it spins a crude, rude and often very funny play of mordant modern manners from the doubts and insecurities that immediately arise in this relationship.
Meanwhile, on the other side of city (as they would say in Sex and the City, the Manhattan-set based television sex comedy that it superficially resembles in its flip, smart sitcom style), Grace (Anna Francolini) is getting her erotic thrills from the dangers of dating a hitman, Gene (Vincenzo Nicoli). They're on their sixth date, and she's desperate to get laid. He, however, is desperate to talk.
When Nancy arrives to try to sort out her relationship with friend Grace, they enlist the help of Gene's gay brother Mark (Patrick Baladi), who happens to be Grace's therapist, who in the third apartment of Laura Hopkins's tripartite design, is himself busy making out with an older man - a much older man, so old in fact that even Mark refers to him as Mr Abramson (John Rogan).
A three-way conference call follows between all the parties, and even if Abigail Morris' production misses some of the text's quirky comic rhythms and is unduly coy for a play about sex (none of the actors shed their underwear), it provides an entertaining diversion.
- Mark Shenton
