EDINBURGH 2014 - BWW Reviews: I PROMISE YOU SEX AND VIOLENCE, King's Hall, August 10 2014

I Promise You Sex and Violence has all the makings of your standard sitcom: gay man lives with straight girl who wants to be set up on a blind date with one of his friends.

This play seems to be trying to do too much at once. In an hour it attempts to tackle gender, sexual and racial equality and doesn't quite manage any of them. The plot unfolds and the initial date between the female flatmate and a man who is mixed race becomes awkward for a number of reasons. To start us off, the man has no social skills whatsoever and the female has some kind of expectation of the race of her date which doesn't go to plan. It transpires that the man is a misogynist and comes out with some incredibly offensive expectations of the date. I can't argue that there is much of a defence though as the woman comes out with some pretty offensive comments herself.

There are some interesting comments regarding gender roles in the play but it isn't particularly well executed. The play is amusing at points but most of it is cringe orthy and it seems to be trying to hard to be controversial.

I Promise You Sex and Violence runs at King's Hall until August 12th.

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