Anna the Slut and the (almost) Chosen One

Much in the same vein as Global Warming is Gay, this ridiculously unappealing title betrays an earnest endeavour. But unlike its reasonably well put together counterpart, Anna the Slut is let down by some painfully flawed dialogue and an ultimately trivial focus.

The play begins with a wise old man narrating the myth of our ancient sex goddess against a backdrop of shadow puppetry, filling us in with her antics of times forgotten. At numerous points throughout the play we return to this history strand, but for now we cut to modern day America where perennial loser Greg has turned 21 and has paid a visit to the bar for his first time. His flamboyant best friend was meant to come and meet him there nearly four hours ago and, sipping beer by himself without ceremony, he passes his time soliloquising his disenchantment. But when Eric finally arrives he comes bearing good news: there’s a hot girl hanging around outside and she’s gagging for it.

She struts her entry soon enough and announces her promiscuity like a divine proclamation. Tonight she’s going to take somebody home! Funnily enough, there’s a local jock hanging around the billiard table who promptly begins flaunting his worth, spinning suave philosophies as our clueless Greg works up the courage to put to the test his own charm. A few naively-scripted exchanges and a slow-mo fight sequence later, the two take to moralising about their differences with long words before Anna finally seizes her prey.

The fun shadow puppet sequences and a limited number of eloquent asides give us ephemeral glimpses into the tighter product this could have been, but Anna the Slut is otherwise a sloppily construed play that hides its lack of substance under overwrought farce, making it as cheap as it sounds.