Fifteen Minutes With You (Not Part Of – Manchester)

Wide boy Matthew (Iain Hoskins) gets more than he bargained for when he invites Jane (Louise Hamer) back to his flat for a drink. He accepts an offer that he can’t refuse but that he later regrets.
 
Fifteen Minutes with You successfully and subtly blends a range of disparate elements. Author Cathy Crabb gives us a very funny sex comedy that also addresses the right to say ‘no’ and examines aspects of sexual identity and domination. It is also, in a speech in which Hamer describes Jane’s party trick, very arousing.
 
It is remarkable that director Julia Nelson is able to make the parts of the play fit together without damaging credibility. She brings a suitable contemplative air to the comparison between the early humorous scenes and the darker concluding material. Nelson is a rare director who is comfortable with no dialogue and gets great humour from a simple wordless scene of the hopeful Matthew attempting to cuddle closer to Jane.
 
Hoskins and Hamer have great chemistry. Even though we might not like Matthew Hoskins’s suburb comic playing, he makes it impossible not to have some sympathy for a man becoming increasing out of his depth. The intimate venue makes it possible to appreciate the actor’s baffled facial reactions. Hamer ensures that Jane’s eccentric behaviour is intriguing rather than repelling. She is a woman who can deliver both a Nanci Griffith song and a foul-mouthed diatribe on the unfairness of love.  
 
Fifteen Minutes with You tackles demanding subjects but does so in a way that leaves you with a smile on your face and a fondness for the characters.  
 
– Dave Cunningham