Sex Cells

Full disclosure to my readers – The Galleon Theatre Group’s latest production, Sex Cells, stars Lesley Reed, a reviewer for Stage Whispers Magazine who acted in the last play I produced. The supporting cast includes Heather Riley and Brian Godfrey, who have previously been my colleagues in other theatrical endeavours. Therefore you may wish to take my (largely positive) assessment with a pinch of salt. 

Despite the provocative title, Anna Longaretti’s play is a relatively low-key, intimate dramedy. The story relates the day to day workplace dramas of five individuals employed at a call-centre for a sex-toy manufacturer. Though there are some amusingly naughty passages of dialogue in which the employees respond to various bizarre customer enquiries, the bulk of the play focuses on the conversations these telephonists have amongst themselves on their breaks between calls, touching upon personal difficulties that most people can relate to on some level.

Sylvie (Anita Canala) is a French immigrant in her 40s who has some slight difficulties adjusting to life in a new country and yearns to be able to have a child. This creates friction with the cynical, world-weary senior, Lily (Reed) whose relationship with her own family has soured with time. Janice (Riley) is a working mum whose attempts at mediating between these two explosive personalities, on top of balancing professional responsibilities with family commitments, often leave her feeling strung out and exhausted. The youngest member of the team, twentysomething Tiffany (Laura Antoniazzi) attempts to lighten the spirits of her colleagues by maintaining a bright and bubbly demeanour, but her chipper outer-self masks some serious uncertainties about life and love. Much the same can be said about the call centre’s bungling manager, Causeway (Godfrey), who is socially awkward and has long carried a torch for Lily.

To my mind, the cast had a suitably heated, argumentative chemistry that brought the best out of the snappy, spitfire dialogue. All had reasonably convincing accents, and injected extra layers of comedy into the proceedings through their physical handling of various unusual props and their impassioned facial expressions. Antoniazzi is a standout in this regard.

For my sins, I once worked in a call centre. I can testify that the sets and props are meticulously authentic. The only grave miscalculation made by this production, to me, was the intrusive, manipulative soundtrack. At several points in the play, characters deliver soul-searching monologues and these are underscored by a piano solo reminiscent of a bad daytime soap opera. It’s as if the director didn’t trust that the audience to pick up on the emotion in the words, and felt the need to hammer the point home with music. Also, there are a handful of scene transitions that drag and this isn’t helped by the playing of pop songs whose lyrics aren’t very subtle in reflecting the emotional content of the story.

Still, all things considered, this is a relatively minor irritation. The nuanced writing and sensitive performances ultimately carry the day, despite the odd bit of directorial heavy-handedness.

Benjamin Orchard