The Stage

Unbroken

Published Friday 13 February 2009 at 11:35 by Gerald Berkowitz

Alexandra Wood’s short play follows the model of Schnitzler’s La Ronde in depicting a chain of sexual encounters - A sleeps with B, who sleeps with C, and so on until we reach A again.

Wood sets her play in 21st century London, with such characters as a rock star almost mechanically seducing a fan, a couple who meet at a speed-dating event, and an intern seducing her boss. Her observation is that in almost no case is sex really the issue, but merely a vehicle for expressing or achieving conquest, comfort, ambition and other drives.

Director Natalie Abrahami has replaced all the sex in the script with dances and cast two dancers to double all the roles. The dance sequences, which take up almost half the total running time of the play, are inventively choreographed by Ugo Dehaes to a musical soundscape by Tom Mills, and are beautifully performed by Gemma Higginbotham and Darren Ellis to evoke the unique tone and emotion of each sexual encounter, be it sensual, violent, gentle or passionate.

These dances are by far the most evocative and communicative parts of the evening, as the actor-dancers are less successful in creating and individualising their several characters in the brief dialogue scenes.