Harder Please @ theSpace, Surgeon's Hall

A masochistic melodrama, Harder Please tells the tale of learning to love; of being the exploited in a world governed through exploitation. After all, surely that's the only way to enjoy it. So, our protagonist (unnamed) enters a Faustian bargain, minus the incentives.

There is much humour here, as Aimee Levey delivers her monologue. Batting for indignance and indulgence, she can also lay on the sexual side as she learns to "get into it and get on with it." There is also a particularly intensely enjoyable episode towards the end where climatic material is deftly underscored as the piece builds towards its final message.

The trouble is, while we know who is telling this sorry, and who they are telling it to, the why seems strangely unclear. Only after the half way point does it register that this may perhaps be a political satire on accepting the power of the ruling class, but even so this is not a thread which is really delivered with laser-like precision. After some time Aimee's tall-tales of feeding "on a good and proper seeing to" become somewhat repetitive. There is much potential here which, with a little refinement, could be unleashed.