Review by Laura Money
According to the pamphlet: “Bryony Kimmings is a Sex Idiot. Following her very first STI test, Bryony discovered she had a common sexual disease. Not one for looking back, she was faced with the arduous task of retracing her sexual footsteps to see where she had contracted her little problem.” What follows is Bryony’s hilarious journey through all of her sexual relationships and how they responded to her probing inquiries. Firstly, Bryony highlights how quickly a common STI can be spread and it is immediately clear that she is not ashamed or even regretful that she has contracted one. Girl power!
Kimmings begins by demonstrating the similarities in mating rituals between birds and humans. They are strikingly similar and she really shows just how silly we all look when trying it on, so to speak. She lets us into her intimate world and we really feel her let down when the negative responses from her past lovers arrive. Unfazed, Kimmings launches into a love song dedicated to the vagina (and all of the euphemisms for it – including the delectable “cat with its throat slit.”) After this follows a hilarious journey back through numerous one-night stands and long term relationships that didn’t quite work out.
She gives each encounter its own piece of performance art – from songs to dances, smearing make-up to blowing up condoms Bryony keeps all of it together with her chatty nature and recital of email/telephone transcripts that make you feel like you’re on the couch with a good friend. Sex Idiot is a hilarious and unapologetic account of one woman’s sexual journey but it is so much more than that. It is a story of finding and losing love, over and over, of being a 21st century chick, making mistakes and living life. Bryony is fun, friendly, sexy, daggy, genuinely funny and incredibly intelligent and Sex Idiot is full of her unique and ineffable charm.
Sex Idiot is part of Fringeworld 2015 running from 29 January to 6 February.
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