Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Claire Sweeney, Lindzi Germain, Carl Patrick.

Radio has come a long way since its early days. It has seen many advancements, dedicated music channels, digital, analogue being banished to the wasteland of history but still lingering on coughing and spluttering in a superhuman effort to keep a vessel of the past open. Pop stars come and go and in some cases come back again and of course the advent of talk radio, the small bubble in which people can lose their rag at a voice a hundred miles away and confess all to an aural-voyeuristic nation. It seems nothing is off limits and when it comes to Sex and the Suburbs, everybody has a story to tell and an opinion to express.

Sex and the Suburbs is Liverpool favourite Claire Sweeney’s first foray into stage writing and she steamrollers her way to deliver a play that gets deep into the problem what drives the British in the bedroom whilst confessing everything to a pair of phone in hosts. No area was lovingly left untouched, nothing left out of bounds and the idea of the sexual role discussed and sang about in a great and positive way.

Joining Ms. Sweeney on stage was the very enjoyable Carl Patrick and the generous and supremely talented Lindzi Germain. Ms. Germain deserves huge credit for coming into the play has she did and taking over the many roles with great gusto and her wonderful trademark zest and appeal. In several scenes she gave eye-catching performances, especially as the woman who discovers new side to life in the art of swinging, as the woman who sells sex toys for a living and touchingly as a woman who finds her husband dresses up as a woman once a week and who finds a new deeper meaning to their marriage. Lindzi Germain handles each story with grace, a laugh and the subtleness of a seasoned comedy professional.

For Claire Sweeney this is a tremendous triumph. When the first show that you write gets the audience’s attention in the Royal Court Theatre in the way that Sex and the Suburbs does, not have you hit upon an untapped goldmine of great gags in a super situation but the goldmine runs deep and the potential seemingly limitless.

For audiences who have called the Royal Court Theatre home over the years and especially in the last 18 months, to see Director Ken Alexander take his bow with Sex and the Suburbs is a double edged sword. Mr. Alexander has presided over some of the best comedies in the last year and a half and will be sorely missed. However to bow out at the top and to leave the Royal Court Theatre in such great shape having been part of an incredibly hard working team will mean that audiences will understand that Liverpool has been blessed with yet another theatre bringing in excellent quality plays and investment in the future. Unlike other areas of the country, Liverpool arguably has maintained an excellent healthy standard of production and is fortunate to have citizens in the overall area who make theatre so vital to the well-being of the city.

Sex and The Suburbs is a genuine Liverpool play, for its people and by its people and written by one of the best talents around.

Ian D. Hall