The Girlfriend Experience

Alecky Blythe’s latest verbatim drama employs her favoured technique – the actors listen to recordings of their characters (in this case working girls in a Bournemouth brothel), and repeat the lines shortly after. Almost like a script-in-hand, only with headphones.

But that’s where comparisons with rehearsed readings end, for The Girlfriend Experience (a reference to a service offered by the ladies which is as much about emotional as physical intimacy) is a slick and polished production, played out by a bold and affecting cast. Debbie Chazen and the prolific Beatie Edney play lovable prostitutes Tessa and Suzie. Between 30-minute stints with various punters, they fold laundry, watch Jeremy Kyle and build flat-pack furniture. This is a wholly domestic arrangement, an ordinary basement flat which just happens to receive more visitors than the Queen.

Tessa and Suzie are assisted by Poppy (superbly underplayed by Lu Corfield) and Amber (a cheeky Esther Coles), who only work on a part-time basis but cater for clients with more specialised requirements – suffice to say rarely has a man with wet hair been such a disturbing sight. But all the while, they talk of boyfriends and love with the same innocent reverie of teenagers. For Tessa, who amongst other tasks must pleasure a deaf old man with a pair of leather gloves, it is holding hands with her new squeeze that gives her the greatest rush.

Despite the warmth of the characters and the plentiful moments of poignancy, there is also something strangely predictable about The Girlfriend Experience. As the audience sniggers at the sight of a dildo and recoils in horror at the thought of ‘solid sports’ (no elaboration needed), there’s nevertheless a feeling that all this achieves is to enhance the stereotype and ignore the wider debate. The clients only make brief appearances (each one played by the versatile Alex Lowe), but it is perhaps through them that we learn the most about ourselves.

The headphone verbatim style is an effective technique, creating patterns of speech that are remarkably authentic, juxtaposing with the frequently outlandish costumes. It sounds a strange comparison to draw, but my companion on the evening had exactly the same thought – it creates an effect that is not dissimilar to watching the Aardman animation series Creature Comforts. Only with leather boots.

– Theo Bosanquet