THE WONDER OF SEX Lyttelton Theatre in rep to 16 February.

Royal National Theatre

THE WONDER OF SEX
by Patrick Barlow with John Ramm and Martin Duncan

Lyttelton Theatre In rep to 16 February 2002
Runs 2hr 15min One interval

TICKETS 020 7452 3000
Review Timothy Ramsden 27 December 2001

The sex may not be good – but the performers are a treat.It says a lot for National Theatre of Brent founder Patrick Barlow that he's stuck with the same joke over 20 years, a cast of two or three taking on an epic adventure with just an audience thrown in for crowd scenes (and some of the Lyttelton audience are thrown in very much at the deep end).

Amazingly Barlow and his associates of the moment still find patches of hilarity. His alter ego Desmond Olivier Dingle's inept grandeur and orotund redundancy still fall pat in the firing-line. They are perfectly offset by that dependable actor John Ramm as the NtofB's entire (trainee) cast, aka Raymond Box.

Raymond, much put upon by the portentous Dingle, learns the power of being the only man in a one-man band as, clutching his Spar carrier, he decides that neither he, nor the show, must go on.

Nor will it unless he gets the chance to play his party-piece as Rasputin. This has little to do with sex, or the show, or Desmond Olivier's plans, but having pulled his unlikely industrial muscle, Raymond harvests the sympathy vote, ie the audience, and soon has us rooting for Rasputin.

Which goes to show how careful you have to be, as this is where the NtofB's famous audience participation comes into play. And we asked for it, including those among us taken on stage to become doomed Cossack cavalry. Sex may never be entirely safe, but it's generally a lot safer than this.

Given the Lyttelton's stage to fill, Desmond has turned his hand to technology. It lets him down. Repeatedly. It send him up. Frequently. It renders him incandescent and – hard as it is to imagine – temporarily speechless.

This show works when it inserts a prick in the backside of pretension, or canoodles with actor-actor and actor-audience relationships. The hammed-up sections about the likes of Casanova and Lady Chatterley are feeble by comparison. The Wonder of Sex offers periodic ecstasy, but it'd be better if they cut the sex scenes.

Desmond Olivier Dingle: Patrick Barlow
Raymond Box: John Ramm
The Voice of Juliet Stevenson: Juliet Stevenson

Director: Martin Duncan
Designer: Francis O' Connor
Lighting: Chris Ellis
Video: Chris Laing
Sound: Adam Rudd

2002-01-13 12:19:21