Sex Idiot – Pulse Fringe Festival, New Wolsey Theatre
Well after a few hours sleep I haven’t calmed down. Where to start? Well just because you can doesn’t mean you should. This offensive, obscene and badly conceived piece ranks as the worst show I’ve ever endured.
So what do you get for your money?
- A song with the delightful refrain of ‘I will rape and mutilate you’
- Another song consisting of a list of words for vagina
- The audience passing round scissors to donate their pubic hair
- Ms Kimmings then using said pubic hair as a moustache
- Dissecting two (animal we hope) hearts on stage and sewing them together
- Singing through her arse
- Urinating into a glass onstage
- Pouring contents of said glass over herself
Now I’m sure it’s meant to be shocking and offensive but for shock to work as a performance piece it needs the material to be clever, Sex Idiot fails as the material behind the shock is so weak and juvenile. Compare Sex Idiot with one of last year’s Pulse Festival late night offerings Horse by Flick Ferdinando. Horse was just as smutty, just as shocking but underpinned by strong performance, a clever and witty script and a clear understanding of how performance theatre can work – all woefully lacking in this ‘performance’.
Some of the audience loved it but sadly I have to chalk this one up as the worst hour in a theatre in 20 years (and I sat through Out Westgate and Guernica). While a passionate supporter for increased arts funding, if this is the level of ‘talent’ the Arts Council are funding perhaps the proposed £19million funding cut may force a radical review of funding such dross. New Wolsey Theatre and Pulse Fringe – hang your heads in shame