Repeated Review – This warped tale of sexual fantasies could be wilder | stage

AAt what point does infatuation turn into something darker and more destructive? There’s actually a term for it — opulence — and that’s the unsettling undercurrent of Tania Loretta Dee’s promising first monologue, in which she also stars. There are very interesting ideas here, especially regarding the fine line between sexual desire and something wilder, more animalistic, and untamable. But production needs more fire and intensity. It unfolds at a slight distance and never pulls us into the depths of this young woman’s feverish breakdown.

The story revolves around Bex, who works in Peckham’s party shop by day and has many sexual fantasies at night. In Bex’s life walks James. With his middle-class wardrobe and average job, James is from a different world. First, he was the fictional Prince of Pex. But as their relationship becomes fractured and twisted, Bex’s fantasies turn against her, separating her from real life and the people who care about her.

Dee develops an intimate rapport with the audience, aided by a series of witty asides. She manages to bring other characters in Bex’s world to life, including her bullied best friend Greta, and her distant and disturbed mother (easily the most interesting character). But James is little more than a caricature: a brute who is easy to hate and difficult to love. This takes a lot of heat from the production and makes Bex’s suffocating infatuation very difficult.

There’s also something a little too controlled about Dee’s performance. She never lets herself off the leash. Instead, it’s as if Cheng Keng’s turbulent lighting design and Mydd Pharo’s abstract, moody set — a wasteland filled with tall grass and large mattresses — were left to create an eerie mood that never matches the script or the performance. Director Sophie Ellerbe could have pushed things much further, surrendering to the darkness and chaos that shimmers beneath this scenario but is never fully expressed.