Sex With Friends (and Other Tiny Catastrophes) continues at Pleasance Courtyard – Upstairs, Edinburgh until 28 August 2022.
Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Let me save you time reading… this is a wonderful wee musical. Sam Woof, the writer and composer, is one to watch.
Now, if you want to know more…
With a sharp script and witty lyrics (there are three laughs in the first verse of the first song) we’re treated to an hour (representing 18 months) in the lives of six friends who fall out, make up, fall in love, and fall out of it again. Woof has great insight into the behaviour and foibles of these sexually fluid 20-somethings and paints the characters with such a light, but assured touch, that we can’t help but believe them and feel what they feel.
The music is clever, played brilliantly on piano by co-composer Màth Roberts. We go from the wit of ‘There’s no Cure for Heterosexuality’, through the heart rending, plaintive, ‘I’ll Wait’, to melodies and countermelodies overlapping to create magnificent harmonies in ‘Rain Check’. It’s like Mozart and Sondheim got together to give each character their moment in counterpoint to the opposite view of another character and channelled it through Woof for us to enjoy.
There are no cheap gags here. Every laugh is earned, and the humour is of a very high quality indeed. I would happily have spent another hour in the company of these six talented performers.
Mark my words, Sam Woof is going to be a strong voice in musical theatre in years to come, and I for one, can’t wait to see what they create next.
Steven Wren
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