By Tanya Batson-Savage, Staff Reporter
'Sex? Thanks! Don't Mind If I Do...' takes a serious look at sex, but makes you laugh about it too. - Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer
SEX? THANKS! Don't Mind If I Do... is a good script occasionally sprained by weak performances. The play, written by Dario Fo, Franca Rame and Jacopo Fo, was directed by Brian Heap and is now playing at the Phillip Sherlock Centre for the Creative Arts, University of the West Indies, Mona, St. Andrew.
Playing for two weekends, Sex? Thanks! Don't Mind If I Do... is the first production of the resuscitated University Players, which is comprised of performers from the university and elsewhere.
The play's name is a mouthful which is appropriate, because so is the production. Sometimes it goes down easily, but at others it was just too dry. Either way, it is quite interesting, often escalating into the hilarious.
Whether you call it 'intercourse', the 'horizontal tango', 'bumping the nasty bits' or simply 'dweet', sex is an interesting topic. It is also a serious topic, but as Sex? Thanks! Don't Mind if I Do... attempts to show, just because you take it sex seriously, it does not mean you have to take all the fun out of it.
Saturday evening's cast featured Veronica Salter, Lynier Hines, Nadean Rawlins, George Howard and Michael Watson. Rawlins gave the only strong performance of the cast and even hers did not maximise the script's potential. While Heap needs to be commended for the great conceptualisation of how he stages the production, he was unable to get the maximum effort from the performers. While they were able to hit home with the jokes at the broader, more raunchy moments, they too often missed the subtler ones.
This was particularly true of George Howard's performance. Although he is a talented slapstick actor, this script called for a deeper performance and he constantly played for the surface comedy. On occasion this worked, but far too often it fell short. Watson, Salter and Hines also needed to be able to carry the nuances of the language, though Salter at least sounded natural. As a result, despite the vast possibilities of aural pleasure, the production often depended heavily physical comedy.
The result is that the play is not the comic blast it could be, but it sometimes comes quite close. Far too often the characters are merely fumbling around with the words, unable to hit the right spot. At others, they simply allow the script to just lay there.
Sex? Thanks! Don't Mind if I Do... is not merely a romp with the raunchy. There is some raunchiness, but despite what the name may suggest it does not even approach the risqué. Instead, the play presents a serious look at sex and its role in the human socialisation process, using a series of narrated sketches.
Sex? Thanks! Don't Mind if I Do... addresses the issues of menstruation, orgasms (and when to know a woman is faking it), frigidity, impotence and sexual exploration. Broken into two segments, the first half looks at women, while the second takes a peek at men. Indeed, the major shortcoming of the script is that it does not take the men sufficiently into consideration, often relegating them to mere appendages.
The open set, with stools across the front of the stage, sets up the idea that the players are about to have a conversation with the audience. In a sense they do, though it is often a monologue masquerading as a dialogue. As a result, the audience is invited to feel a part of the production, since the players are constantly addressing them.
Sex? Thanks! Don't Mind If I Do... starts with the first sexual experience of mankind, involving Adam and Eve. It attempts to show how the two blundered into the sex act and discovered that their genitalia was not merely given to mark them as either male or female.
Interestingly, Sex? Thanks! Don't Mind if I Do... pays much attention to ignorance about sex. Much of this focuses on how young girls are taught about sex and their genitalia. At especially these points, the play manages to cross the bridge between serious and funny. In essence Sex? Thanks! Don't Mind If I Do... is not as bright a gem as it could be, but it sparkles enough.
