Under a star-studded sky, against the sleepy backdrop of a rural housing estate hidden from the glare of “loadsamoney” London and “there is no such thing as society” Thatcherism by a green and pleasant land of rolling hills and grassy fields, a randy handyman Bob (James Atherton) sits in the front seat of his shaggin’ wagon, splays his denim-clad thighs as wide as the Clyde and mansplains to the “terrible twins” Rita (Taj Atwal) and Sue (Gemma Dobson, making her professional stage debut) the lexicon of love.

For intercourse read jump, for Durex read johnny, for erection read hard-on and for sweet nothings read lie on your teenage back and try not to think of England with three million on the dole, a housing ladder with more snakes than ladders, and a women’s place is in the kitchen and under the thumb of her domineering husband.

Over a quarter of a century since the late Andrea Dunbar’s northern love triangle Rita, Sue and Bob Too veered off the M6 onto the hard shoulder of 80s Britain, comes a nationwide tour by Out of Joint, Octagon Theatre Bolton and the Royal Court Theatre which culminates this week at the Citz. So much privatised water has flowed under the Millenium Bridge, yet the stench of inequality and misogyny at the heart of the Disunited Kingdom smells just as foul.

A female Prime Minister who pays lips service to the “northern powerhouse”, a Tory government “for the few, not the many”, a north-south divide growing wider than a fat cat’s belt buckle ‒ not just in terms of jobs and income, but attitudes towards Europe and Johnny Foreigner ‒ and despite winning the right to vote almost 100 years ago to the day, women playing second fiddle to the unfair sex to the tune of It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World.

The man in question being twenty-going-on-thirty-something Bob who, frustrated by his sexless marriage to Michelle (Samantha Robinson), once again strays from the garden path to sew his wild oats with his fifteen-year-old babysitters Rita and Sue. The latter of whom is one of three children to a “trapped” housewife with a foghorn voice (Sally Bankes) who describes her permanently pissed husband (David Walker) as “the fucking lodger in the house waiting to be thrown out”. The Waltons they are not. For in place of “Good night, John Boy. Good night, Mary Ellen.” Sue’s dad barks “Oh fuck off and get to bed.”

And get to bed, or rather recline the car seat, is the recurring instruction from Bob which drives the play towards its Another Brick In The Wall ending after he receives an affirmative if duplicitous reply to his blunt chat-up line, “Are you both a virgin?” Whether they are or not is neither here nor there. What is is their age: “nearly 16”.

But the primary focus of the play and director Kate Wasserberg’s excellent production is not sex with minors ‒ though the girls are initially abused by a man in a position of power, as the play progresses it is they who demand sex from him ‒ it is the sense of entrapment, felt mostly by women in dead-end jobs and dead-end relationships who are objectified as either sluts or frumps, but also by men whose world of certainty is shifting beneath their feet like quicksand.

Taj Atwal and Gemma Dobson fizz like an Alka-Seltzer; their delivery fast but nuanced, giving equal weight to their characters’ innocence and doubt as well as their mischief and streetwise knowing. James Atherton, aided by comical direction during the bubble-butt “jump” sequences which together with the raising of the houselights puts the focus on the audience’s reaction rather than the seediness of the act, succeeds in making Bob more playful than predatory. Samantha Robinson as Michelle alternates between stoicism and motherliness at the turn of a cheek. And David Walker and Sally Bankes inject their roles with great humour and pathos.

Sure, the structure is a little bit samey ‒ short, snappy scenes featuring short, snappy dialogue with short, snappy one-liner endings ‒ but the honesty of the writing and the tightness of the ensemble makes for an entertaining yet thought-provoking 80 minutes. So with Valentines Day disappearing in the rear view mirror faster than a favourable Brexit deal, why not join Rita, Sue and Bob Too for a frisky foursome before their shaggin’ wagon pulls out of the hard shoulder of the Citz this coming Saturday. Buckle up! You’re in for a bumpy ride!

Writer –  Andrea Dunbar
Director – Kate Wasserberg
Designer – Tim Shortall
Lighting Designer – Jason Taylor
Sound Designer – Emma Laxton

Cast

James Atherton
Taj Atwal
Sally Bankes
Gemma Dobson
Samantha Robinson
David Walker

Peter Callaghan
Latest posts by Peter Callaghan (see all)