EDINBURGH 2019: Review: SARY, Sweet Novotel

Hare sex. Graphic, detailed hare sex.

And we're not just talking hare on hare here. That's right, it's fan-favourite - bestiality. Now, I totally get that in the 19th century contraception wasn't really an option for women and the threat of having a baby could be scary for a single woman, but to resort to fantasising about sleeping with a hare to get off?! There are other options, Sary!

The problem is that there is some stunning acting from Sharon Drain and Rebecca Jones, and the language is lyrical, but I simply do not want to hear about hare sex, ever. No matter how well it's being told.

It's an utterly bizarre plot choice two-thirds of the way through an intelligent piece of theatre that deals with grief and exploitation, and looks at how the world paints women who choose to live outside the norms of society.

Instead of going away thinking about the feminist story, or the acting, or even the great technical aspects, it's just hare sex and the inability to look the person you went with directly in the eye for a good half an hour. It probably didn't help that it's such an intimate room; everything is very intense and in your face.

It's frustrating, because there's a lot of good stuff going on here. We need more female-led productions and female writers, and I want to champion their work. Sam Chittenden's descriptions of the rural Sussex landscape, in particular, are beautiful. Drain and Jones have wonderful chemistry as they examine their older and younger selves - it's an innovative concept. But the long and short of it is: bestiality fantasies are grim and I don't want to hear about it.

https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/sary

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