44 Sex Acts in One Week at Pleasance Dome – Edinburgh Fringe review

We’re greeted at the door by cast members in frog outfits, dancing to lo-fi disco tunes. Given the show’s title, this might not feel all that unusual – and indeed is only the pilot drill for an hour-long bonanza of surreality, sound-scaping and, as you might expect, the occasional strap-on.

Writer David Finnigan has gone to some fun places with this four-hander (first seen in Australia in 2022), essentially a mildly Black Mirror-esque reflection on the present day, inspired by the teetering ledges of a floundering gig economy and the ever-present threat of ecological disaster. The piece follows blogger Celina, who has to earn a big commission by fulfilling all 44 sex acts described in a new self-help book. The twist: she only has a week to do it, and can only find one guy willing to get on board with it: and he’s very into frogs.

It’d be wrong to spell out more of the production from there, but as slapdash as Sheridan Harbridge makes it all, there’s bundles of fun to be had. The most novel part of the production is invariably its decision to employ live foley artistry for the sound effects (kudos to sound designer Steve Toulman and sound engineer Keelan Ellis), which has meant I’ll never look at a watermelon in quite the same way going forwards.

There’s some very real, very striking messages that beat at the heart of 44 Sex Acts, where unfettered copulation and the myth of ‘self-help’ feel like fads in the face of the end of civilisation as we know it. It may not be as raunchy as the title suggests (by the end of the play the sex acts themselves feel rather perfunctory), but it’s a perfectly pleasant afternoon delight of a play.