Dark Erotica Quartet / Footfalls review | fortyfivedownstairs

Two different plays share the stage in a double bill that explores passion and vulnerability. James Hazelden's Dark Erotica Quartet offers three short, loosely linked vignettes about sex and intimacy, while Samuel Beckett’s Footfalls follows an elderly woman speaking to her unseen mother, a meditation on memory and presence. Both pieces are carefully contained, but each invites the audience into varying kinds of human experience.


Each story in Dark Erotica Quartet stands alone, yet they converse with one another, forming a small universe of desire and openness. Under Blake Barnard’s perceptive direction, Hazelden’s script leans into sensual imagery and frank dialogue that is sexual without being crude. The comedy lands, but never at the expense of the characters, whose sexual natures are treated with authenticity and seriousness. When one reflects on the time a partner’s tears fell on his erect penis, it is delivered not as a joke, but with blunt, candid honesty.

In A Heartbeat review

What are memories? What becomes of them as we - and the people with whom we’ve shared them with - begin to get older, frailer and eventually die? Barking Spider Visual Theatre specialise in creating unique experiences for audiences through immersive and interactive storytelling and with In A Heartbeat, the company allows us to take a heart warming visit to the years gone by.

We are greeted by a flurry of excitable hosts (Ashleigh Gray, Emma Telford, Jaime Chapman, Rachel Duffy, Laura Aldous and Chloe Smith) who guide us to one of five tables that are adorned with teacups, hot tea and an assortment of homemade biscuits and sweets. The women wear colourful patterned skirts with aprons tied around their waists, bright blouses and various pieces of jewellery, reminiscent of your stereotypical 1950s fashion.