Queerguru’s Andrew Hebden reviews MIXED SEX : an awkward and amusing journey back to the writer’s childhood in the 1990s.

Mixed Sex ☆☆☆

Lion and Unicorn Theatre

 

Samuel Normington’s Mixed Sex, co-directed by Santiago Guerra, is an awkward and amusing journey back to Sam’s childhood in the 1990s. Whilst channeling more than a pimple full of the 1980s spirit of Adrian Mole this play still sits firmly in the later decade of Kappa shell suits, girl bands, and the emergence of internet porn.

 

At its heart is Sam (played by Normington), a pre-adolescent boy whose love for Eternal’s chart-topping hits and playground dance routines sets him apart from his football-playing peers. Normington, who both wrote and performs the play, draws from his own childhood experiences to tell a story that is personal to him but relatable to most queer British youth of the time. Sam is always himself while struggling with the fact that this seems to mystify, animate and frustrate those around him.

 

Sam doesn’t want to go to the Boys Only school. Too much football, rugby and testerone for him. He wants to go to the mixed sex comprehensive, the same as his best friend Rosie (Lana Peta-Dean). The curriculum sounds much more him as not only will Sam be able to continue to braid his best friend’s hair, he will also get to learn contemporary dance. If Sam is not sure what his career will end up being, he wants to do something a little fabulous on the way. So Sam fights to get his own way, whilst tripping over the obstacles put in his way by the furtively sexual straight boys and the over ripe teen girls.

 

It’s a small cast in a tiny theatre. Thirty year olds playing teens is oddly reminiscent of American High School shows like Glee but that’s where the similarity ends. Lana-Peta Dean is a versatile highlight as Sam’s Mum and Rosie, along with Lanre Danmola charmingly capturing Sam’s friend Archie as well as his brother. Some of the scenes are overly quick but the pace moves lightly. Themes like HIV/AIDS serve as a backdrop but only to highlight the clumsy childhood innocence of the characters. Rather than show threats directly Normington takes an alternate route of his characters mouthing the threats of others. The kids know it’s a problem to be gay but they can’t quite work out why, so the insults are shown to be vacuous rather than wounding. Mixed Sex succeeds in dancing lightly on the leaden despair that coming of age stories sometimes indulge in.

 

Queerguru Contributing Editor ANDREW HEBDEN is a MEDIA and cultural STUDIES graduate spending his career between London, Beijing, and NYC as an expert in media and social trends. As part of the expanding minimalist FIRE movement, he recently returned to the UK and lives in Soho. He devotes as much time as possible to the movies, theatre, and the gym. His favorite thing is to try something (anything) new every day