Wasted is one of the most hi-energy, physically speedy productions, even by Bruiser Theatre standards, I have seen. The characters jitter, sometimes judder with emotion and move from the start. It’s a slice of issue theatre and deals with the question of sexual consent and drunkenness in women. Young women, as our relatable protagonist Emma (excellent Sharon Duffy) seems scarcely of age to be downing Tequila shots. The questions surrounding her one night stand, which she can’t quite remember due to alcohol, pile up and we gain a couple of possible narratives. It’s complicated, messy, above all believable, And of course, worrying as she goes with her mate for a morning after pill.
Kat Woods’ drama is gripping from the start. The bouncers shout the odds at the crowd entering the club (us, as played) – the multi roleing throughout is superb with Warren McCook mastering women including the sympathetic girlfriend – and we enter Emma’s world. The consent issue is well examined. The couple end up on the pavement after their night out and he is behaving gallantly, offering her a bed at his place as she’s lost phone, bag, can’t remember her address. This is horribly credible and later, when being questioned after she has charged Ollie with sexual assault, Emma says she feels terribly ashamed. She disguises the number of units of alcohol she’s had, a regular problem, and is traumatised she just can’t recall what happened to her. But because of her body, she knows something did and she couldn’t have consented. Yet she gave the guy, whom she fancied and who regarded her as fit, a blow job. This doesn’t mean she agreed to anything further, but raises the spectre of the Bill Clinton defence that it wasn;t real sex. The real sex is sketched in, with Emma passive, non resistant as she’s virtually passed out.
But what is impressive about this play is its even handedness and the way we gain the male perspective too. Oliver can’t believe he’s being charged with potential rape, nor can his uptight mother. Police at the door plus a hangover spell real grown-up disaster. You wonder if ,drunk as he also was, his mens rea or mental state in legal terms was reliable. He felt, and the acting out shows this, that Emma wasn;t unagreeable to the idea but real consent needs a clear head. And Emma’s distress at the way her young life is panning out was palpable and well done.
I attended a schools performance and nobody talked or giggled. The serious messages clearly hit home in Bruiser’s engaging production, directed with sensitivity and also pezazz by Lisa May.
Jane Hardy
