'Sex/Crime' review or 'Is there a safe word?'

Sex Crime, Alexis Gregory

Soho Theatre, 27th January 2020

Written for The Guardian

Writer Alexis Gregory has described his show Sex/Crime as a “queer thriller” but it’s a tough one to classify. This is a two-hander about some exceptionally dark sexual role-playing, which finds two men breathlessly reimagining the murders committed by a gay serial killer. There’s lots of leather, drugs and violence – yet the script’s punches never quite land.

The show premiered last year at Jonny Woo’s queer venue, the Glory, in east London and Woo performs alongside Gregory. Woo plays Man A; Gregory is Man B. Woo is a tax-paying, admin-abiding, suited citizen, who just happens to run sexual role-plays for a living. Gregory is his customer. He wears black gym gear and prowls about the stage with lust, verging on desperation, etched on his face: “Promise you’ll make me forget who I am.”

All the ingredients are here for a powerful – and occasionally funny – piece about love, loneliness and longing. But Gregory’s writing is a bit too deliberate in places (some lines feel showy) and too abstract in others (the people never feel real). The dialogue frequently strains for effect rather than meaning (“We could be alone – together.”) Robert Chevara’s direction is over-choreographed, with every punch performed in slow motion, and bathed in red light. Every costume change is preceded by a blackout. The shocks are so signposted that, eventually, they’re neutralised.

There is one seriously sexy moment with an apple but, apart from that, not enough heat in the production. Woo and Gregory are both emphatic performers but they are at their most powerful when looking out to the audience rather than at each other. Woo is also a drag queen and comic and has real presence on stage, his wry demeanour masking hidden depths. The monologues are particularly good: when Woo movingly talks about “creating new hiding places in your own shadows” he briefly touches upon the sadness this play is only just beginning to explore.