Kieran Hurley’s new play, ‘ADULTS’ opens at The Traverse this Edinburgh Fringe, with expectations running high for another smash success to rival his 2017 hit, ‘Mouthpiece‘.
The good news is: it might! ‘ADULTS’ opens upon thirty-something Zara’s (Dani Heron) bedroom, a multi-functional space also operating as a brothel. There’s a new client due, and her business partner Jay (Anders Hayward), isn’t answering his phone, despite being the ‘boy’ booked to service the newcomer. When she opens the door, however, Zara finds her newest customer, is her former, favourite high school English teacher.
What ensues is a blend of adult-themed sitcom, and philosophical enquiry as to the state of the nation. Hurley has plenty of fun with Mr. Urquhart’s (Conleth Hill) belated recognition of his former protegee, and the fraught negotiations which follow. Zara’s dad doesn’t know what she does, and Mr. Urquhart’s wife of many years thinks he is anywhere but soliciting gay sex for money.
A comedy of errors leading to the teacher’s exchange of a sober grey suit for bright yellow flamenco shirt, takes a turn for the serious when Zara takes a picture of the educator – to ensure his silence. Their conversation also dives surprisingly deep into Zara’s cynical world view, and enduring resentment for what she sees as Mr. Urquhart’s false promise, ‘you can do anything.’ Her former educator, at first taken aback, reasserts his opinion that she had all the talent needed to ‘do better’ than the sex trade, his opinion bolstered by Zara’s subsequent university education and eloquence.
Eventually Jay shows up, 30 years old and not precisely the smooth bodied vision of youth promised on the website; he’s also arrived in a foul mood, with his baby. If Mr. Urquhart was dubious as to his day’s decisions, this eventuality all but sends him out of the door.
Persuaded to stay, ‘ADULTS’ takes a journey into black comedy, where Mr. Urquhart’s sexual toe-dipping seems destined for a seminal experience, but results in a near-kidnapping. Riled by the teacher’s judgement of his ‘disgraceful’ lifestyle when he has a baby crying in a room next door, Jay makes a despicable, hot-headed choice, and sets in motion a cascade of truth telling which will leave everyone’s lives changed permanently.
However, as cleverly as that ultimate crisis is reached, the fall out doesn’t ring completely true. Ryan’s absolute betrayal of Zara is forgiven far too easily, and ultimately seems to come with no consequences. The attempt to position him as the play’s accidental sage thus becomes a touch hard to swallow. More successful is Hurley’s rather bleak subtext that ‘inspirational teachers’ may be the most dangerous, and unsettling proposition without doubt.
Let’s stop now to compliment the performances of all three cast members. Heron is splendid as the self-assured, eloquent, and visionary brothel owner; Hayward creates a very believably warn-out libertine, whilst Hill is simply magnificent, giving a nuanced, dynamic performance as the dedicated teacher grappling with inner emptiness. The sparks fly when the three interact, the dialogue zipping out with an acid-etched intensity.
A crude interpretation of Hurley’s play might posit this as ‘boomers vs millenials’, but whilst that conflict looms large, ‘ADULTS’ isn’t all about the former generation’s failure to steward the planet. Blame, Hurley seems to suggest, is a waste of time. All we can use is honesty, the truth, and then see where we go from there. However, alongside the philosophy there’s also plenty to laugh at, from sharp, inciteful dialogue to wonderfully grotesque chuckles as Jay tries to find the teacher’s unspoken sexual triggers.
Ultimately, ‘ADULTS’ accepts there are no easy answers to how the world should operate, and how best the generations should work together – if they can. Which isn’t to say it doesn’t find an ending, only that the ending, whilst satisfactory, isn’t the least tidy. However if the fallout of the day’s misadventures is a messy affair, it is an honest one. So oddly enough, one wonders whether the true theme of the play is actually ‘honesty is the best policy’…Sharp, inciteful, hilarious and original, ADULTS is a play to make you think, and laugh.
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