Closer

Closer is a very clever play. And I did enjoy it, despite sitting next to someone who didn't, and the person next to him who left at the interval in disgust. It can at times be a bit unsettling and the sexual swearing is, well, prominent.

The play centres around the relationships of four individuals, or I could say two couples, but the make-up of couples shifts as the play wears on, with multiple infidelities. No one can quite settle on the same partner. Theatrically its a very fine, clever piece. At times all four are on stage at the same time, but are not all present in the same scene. At one point we see the end of a restaurant liaison, and then the beginning of the liaison follows it, to show how we got to that point. There is a great scene where the two men are communicating via computer, their electronic chat appearing on a screen above, leaving us just to see the facial expressions of the actors reacting to their dialogue.

I can't say I found it an entirely believable play, but nor so unlikely that one found it wholly unconvincing either. Perhaps the most thought provoking bits were those which focused on tipping points in a relationship. Those points where one could have resisted temptation, and not been unfaithful. But this lot could never resist temptation.

Lots of good witty lines in it too, but also a fair bit of gratuitous and rather jarring sexual conversation. Not for the easily offended.