The show, performed by the Swiss actress Isabelle Stoffel in a succession of silks and lingerie, comes from the Spanish National Theatre and this, its English-speaking premiere, is co-produced by the founding father and ageless spirit of the Fringe, Jim Haynes.
Stoffel – who resembles a pouting, delicious young Leslie Caron – clearly identifies with the pleasures she describes, which gives the performance an authentic charge and frisson, to put it mildly.
She exchanges the fetishism of her ballet pumps for the sharp stab of stilettos; the tedium of married life for the masseur’s probing touch and the invitation of a brawny stage-hand to sit on his face.
A serious play about sex is a rarity, and Kenneth Tynan, who came a voyeuristic cropper with Oh! Calcutta! (“Oh, quel cul t’as”), would surely have applauded this beguiling and seductive adaptation of New York ballerina Toni Bentley’s book, directed by Spanish movie mogul Sigfrid Monleón.
Not least among its joyous assertions is that sexual liberation lies in enthusiastic submission. You might not agree, but the point is made passionately and convincingly. Sex is usually about domination and possession, and dancers know best how the highest ecstasy is achieved by crashing through the pain barrier.
The Surrender continues at Gilded Balloon Teviot until 26 August (not 7)
