Unsuitable for Adults

New Edinburgh-based theatre company AimAndSpit last month took Naturalism beyond Stanislavski’s teaching, giving a brave location-specific performance of Terry Johnson’s Unsuitable for Adults. Entering Nicol Edwards pub, audience members were ushered downstairs to the bottom bar by Harry, the play’s jovial, if sometimes abrasive publican. Set in a seedy strip joint in the 80s, the production made full use of the space, with actors moving through the audience to remove Naturalism’s hypothetical fourth wall.

Unsuitable for Adults critiques the plight of women in the post-feminism 80s against the backdrop of AIDS, angst and stripping. While lapdancer Tish is the obvious star attraction of Harry’s bar with her platinum blond bob and seemingly innocent girl-next-door charm other performers are also touting their talents. Stand-up comedian and raging feminist Kate valiantly fights off the sexual overtures of gormless magician Keith while struggling to put together a set and attempting to reclaim the “c-word” for womankind.

However, with the entrance of her erstwhile lover and full-time cad Nick Kate has more than wordplay to contend with. As the play unfolds it becomes clear that Kate is a woman trying to reconcile her political ideology with much deeper womanly impulses. A basic yet repressed desire to be loved and force the feckless Nick to settle down with their abandoned daughter causes her to lash out at Tish, who represents for Kate a threatening caricature of femininity, destined to take her man.

Throughout the course of the action a strange friendship grows between the two women as they swop stories of sexual exploits and Spanish waiters. However, neither can comprehend the other’s life choices and a sense of betrayal accompanied by the arrival of a tall, gaunt, middle-aged man drives the action to its dramatic conclusion. Occasional fluffed lines and slips into the melodramatic aside, Unsuitable for Adults was imaginatively realised with a high energy that captivated the audience throughout.