Sex with a Stranger, Trafalgar Studios 2, London

4.00

 

The singular comic talents of Stefan Golaszewski are mostly expended on works for television - as in Him & Her, a sitcom that applies Royle Family techniques to twentysomething slackerdom with intermittently hilarious results.

But he is also no mean dramatist for the stage.  The Stefan Golaszewski Plays (a title that takes few risks with misattribution) elicited five-star raves from this paper and the Daily Telegraph when it arrived at the Bush two years ago.  That piece was a diptych of linked monologues, performed with mesmeric skill by the author; they demonstrated his ability to sustain pace, rhythmic variety and peculiarly-angled narrative interest over the long distance.  In Sex with a Stranger, premiered now at the Trafalgar Studios, Golaszewski trains his extraordinary flair on playing around with the tragicomic possibilities of a story chopped into cheekily hyper-abrupt black-out sketches that are presented in calculatedly unchronological order and set against sequences that are an agony of real-time protractedness.  You can't put an ironing board on stage without invoking Look Back in Anger.  Here, though, it's a case of John Osborne, eat your heart out, as we watch, in weirdly rapt and respectful silence, a young woman named Ruth perform the entire business of ironing her partner's package-creased new shirt.

The shirt has just been purchased by Adam (brilliant Russell Tovey) and, by this roughly mid-point in the play, we have already seen him wearing it and indeed taking it off in the bedroom of Grace (spot-on Jaime Winstone), an airhead "in sales" that he has picked up at a disco for a one-night stand.  This first half of Philip Breen's immaculately timed and acted production is largely spent in following this couple of strangers through the epic banalities of the journey to her flatshare.  There are several bouts of the kind of snogging that could teach a hoover a thing or two about suction but mostly you wonder if masturbation wouldn't be preferable as he drapes her in his doe-eyed gaze and she witters empily on.  Asked where exactly she lives, she says "Do you know Homebase", as though it were as distinctive as the Bridge of Sighs.  Golaszewski has a devastating ear for the tiny bizarreries of this near-phatic communion, plus the uncondescending ability to keep the characters juicy.  You never feel that they are being baked to death with derision, as they bark their shins in the dark against a too-low bed.

Then there's a weird change of gear and you see the run-up to this night.  Naomi Sheldon wrings your heart and irritates you to bits as the girlfriend who, by having been too suspicious, has put herself in a weak position and can't object when Adam claims that he is going out for a mate's twenty-sixth birthday.  As she helps him get ready, in a banked-down fever of foreboding, you feel that their lives have quietly horrifying DIY Neil LaBute play.  A  dazzling achievement.

To 25 Feb

Independent Comment
blog comments powered by Disqus
News in pictures
World news in pictures
Arts & Ents blogs

Game of Thrones ‘Second Sons’ – Season 3, episode 8

Even though there was a complete absence of our favourite odd couple Brienne and Jaime, we got anoth...

Made in Chelsea – Series 5, Episode 7

If you had any doubt where Binky gets her brilliantly brassy disregard for social graces, episode se...

Kate Simko: A picture paints a thousand notes

Kate Simko is a lady who has constantly worked towards to pushing herself musically. Though she make...

       
Independent
Travel Shop
India and Shimla
14 nights from only £1899pp Find out more
Prague city break
Three nights from £199pp Find out more
4* Soreda hotel break, Malta
Seven nights all-inclusive from £399pp Find out more

ES Rentals

    'There is a battle going on inside us that is never discussed'

    Masculinity in crisis?

    'There is a battle going on inside us that is never discussed'
    Have US shock jocks gone too far?

    Have US shock jocks gone too far?

    An incendiary remark from Rush Limbaugh may be the beginning of the end for outspoken right-wing US broadcasters
    The ‘Beverly Hills’ of Surrey pays more income tax than big cities of the North

    The ‘Beverly Hills’ of Surrey

    Elmbridge pays more income tax than big cities of the North
    Heavenly Bodies

    Heavenly Bodies

    Michael Landy's artistic marriage made in heaven... and hell
    'He will always be a friend': Jackie Stewart backs Polanski

    'He will always be a friend'

    Jackie Stewart backs Roman Polanski
    The price of pacifism: Refusing to go to war is finally being recognised as a brave act

    The price of pacifism

    From the Second World War refusenik to the 19-year-old Israeli, Holly Williams talks to five people who risked shame and suffering to take a stand as conscientious objector.
    'It was mass hysteria': Jason Isaacs on groupies, theatre bores and snogging James Bond

    Jason Isaacs: Groupies, theatre bores and James Bond

    To millions, Jason Isaacs is one of Harry Potter's arch enemies – but his wife prefers him as a Scottish TV detective.
    Notes from a small island: Is Sealand an independent 'micronation' or an illegal fortress?

    Sealand: 'Micronation' or illegal fortress?

    Thomas Hodgkinson spent a week at the tiny platform off the Suffolk coast to find out.
    Not a bad bone: Mark Hix cooks with cutlets and ribs

    Mark Hix cooks with cutlets and ribs

    If you ignore cutlets and ribs, you'll risk missing out on some delicious and easy meals, says our chef.
    The experts' guide to summer: From getting fit for the beach to recreating that Olympic buzz

    The experts' guide to summer

    From getting fit for the beach to recreating that Olympic buzz
    Sex, drugs and fast cars: The legend of James Hunt has set Hollywood hearts racing

    Legend of James Hunt has set Hollywood hearts racing

    Early glimpses of Ron Howard's film Rush suggest it will portray Hunt as a high-living lothario, with an insatiable appetite for partying.
    Macklemore: 'I don't have moderation when using drugs and alcohol. It was hurting my life'

    Macklemore: 'I don't have moderation'

    The next Vanilla Ice or the next Eminem? Macklemore doesn't have a record contract – but he does have the UK's biggest-selling single of the year.
    Don't be shy: Bill Granger's Sri Lankan recipes

    Don't be shy: Bill Granger's Sri Lankan recipes

    Sri Lankan cuisine is light, sunny, wonderfully spiced – and so easy to cook from scratch. Just as soon as you've broken into the coconut, that is.
    Sir James Dyson’s latest project: Cleaning up hospitals

    Sir James Dyson’s latest project: Cleaning up hospitals

    Doctors are hailing the revamp of a Bath neonatal unit, where babies sleep more and feed better, as the model for patient care
    One man returns to Argentina's town that drowned

    One man returns to Argentina's town that drowned

    Epecuen was submerged under 10 metres of water in 1985. Now the floods have gone – and 83-year-old Pablo Novak has moved back in