Review – Tainted Love

Oh, to be fifty-one! Oh, to be a fifty-one year old working-class woman unhappily unmarried in regional England.

Four such women are the stuff of Johnny Grim’s play Tainted Love, now visiting Holden Street until the 29th. The four, long-time friends have gathered at the house of Julie (who actually still is married, though less-than-happily), and together they compare the rather disappointing trajectories along which life has hurled them. The play is very light comedy peopled with very stock characters telling a very unimaginative tale. But it isn’t actually boring, somehow. The actors are very good, despite some verbal fumblings, and the vernacular dialogue is dead-on. The pace is also very good. It is a play that tries to do very little and is subsequently without glaring shortcomings; it is simply a question of your expectations. I think this play is going to have a rather narrow appeal because of its content and mood, but within that lucky bracket will probably be quite delightful. The humour is un-blushing elbow-in-the-ribs crassness, the emotional matter is sentimental, the direction and design, pedestrian. These criticisms are not part of a damning critique, nor am I indulging in vapid condescension by declaring the experience “for the right person, a treat”. The play does not fail on any applicable level, it just combines basic humour with basic characters and a basic plot. It is well-written and very well acted. It’s just a bit… basic. If the synopsis of the play is appealing to you, I can confidently assert that you will not be disappointed.