Bachelor infiltrates socialist party to get laid in this Edinburgh Festival Fringe production.
Show me yours, I’ll show you mine: relationships as transactions are not a new idea and sex often plays a crucial role when partners negotiate their needs. In According To His Need, hobby socialist Nick joins the party to finally score again. He meets the party loyal Cass who wants to elevate Nick’s interest for Che Guevara above that of an ornamental T-shirt decoration.
Hannah Mamalis as Cass makes debatable enunciation choices and as her speeches drips with frustration over the wannabe leftist: her stream of political jargon becomes almost indistinguishable. Michael-David Mckernan copes better with the socialist babble. Although a needy loner, his confusion is charming as his commitment to Cass (and Marx) blossoms and he realises that instating socialist values might not agree with his libido.
The emotional bartering between them exposes the logical flaws that emerge when real people try to apply abstract political theories to their lives. Unfortunately, the play is not a clever allegory on real live political events. Oliver Eagleton’s script seems oddly unaware of socialist core issues like class and labour. Instead it contents itself with a rambling flow of theoretical jargon. Together with Nora Kelly-Lester’s pragmatic direction the show is more lacklustre than revolutionary.
Originally written for The List as part of their Edinburgh Fringe 2014 coverage.