EDINBURGH 2019: Review: SEX EDUCATION, Summerhall

Performance artist Harry Clayton-Wright is examining his own sex education and inviting the audience to look at their own. His mother refused to talk to him about sex and his father bought him gay porn when he was fourteen, has either approach had much effect on Harry's sex life?

The audience is shown clips from the videos that Harry was given as a child and presented in this context they are hilarious and downright baffling in places. The footage shown is quite explicit but it isn't there to shock- it's to start a discussion. His own naked body has been displayed for all to see on the internet as well with the attitude that nobody can hold it against him- he belongs to everybody and nobody.

Harry Clayton-Wright is a very warm performer and a joy to watch. He makes a reasonable large theatre feel like a safe space where the audience is free to discuss their own experiences. It's a tightly packed hour of theatre that covers a lot of ground and is expertly executed.

The true star of Sex Education is Harry's mum. A series of recorded audio interviews are played where he asks her about her own romantic history and how she feels about the fact that there are naked pictures of her son on the internet. It's lovely to listen to as she is impossibly proud of Harry- she just wishes he'd let her see some of his theatre work...

Harry Clayton-Wright has managed to create a piece of theatre that is funny, moving and above all- important. The most powerful thing he wants us to take away from Sex Education is that LGBT inclusive sex education is suicide prevention.

https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/sex-education

Photo credit: Holly Revell

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