This outlandish and imaginative show is the highlight of Brisbane Comedy Festival. You’ll never see fruit the same way.
'44 Sex Acts In One Week', performed by Club House Productions at the Brisbane Comedy Festival, is a hilariously provocative play that dives deep into the complexities of modern relationships, sex, and the quest for intimacy. Created by playwright David Finnigan, the show strikes a perfect balance between raunchy humour and genuine emotion, offering a refreshingly honest take on the lengths people will go to in order to connect with each other.
The play centres on the character of Celina, a journalist who takes on an unconventional assignment: to engage in 44 different sex acts in one week and document her experiences. The premise, while seemingly outrageous, serves as a springboard for a broader exploration of human sexuality, societal taboos, and the often-absurd pressures of contemporary dating culture.
The stand-out performance by the lead actress Rebecca Massey (Beverley from HR, ABC’s 'Utopia') is smashing. Taking on the twin roles as unhinged-sex-coach-extraordinaire and fearlessly-exploitative-editor, Massey’s extreme energy blazes a trail for the rest of the cast. She engages with the audience both during and pre-show, saucily reminding us all that she will not sleep with us during the show. . . But coquettishly leaving some ambiguity in her denials. Both the desperately unhappy sexpert she portrays, and the writing task she assigns to Celina of reporting back on her 44 sex acts in a week, shows how performative dating – and the need to show you’re 'up for anything' – has become.
Now, let’s get to the fruit. This was a minimalist play, with actors taking on several characters, denoted by a quick change of one or two props. The use of radio play techniques such as scrunching paper into microphones for the sound effects, and they use fruit to simulate sex. Thanks to Harry Styles, everyone knows what eating the watermelon represents, but you will never look at a rockmelon the same way. It is hilarious, cute, and horrifying all at the same time. Maybe don’t see it on a first date.
