Uncoupled

Louise Templeton certainly hasn’t picked an easy topic for her first Fringe acting role. Uncoupled is a tale of a troubled marriage, with a novel issue at the root of the distress: porn addiction. An over-reliance on porn is probably a common factor in many modern break-ups but isn’t a subject that regularly crops up on stage or screen, as a chap furtively browsing the web offers less potential for drama than a clandestine fling. Or so you may think.

This one-woman show—written by regular Fringe scribe Richard Bickley—is testing relatively uncharted waters then, and takes a light, often humorous, if sometimes achingly sad approach to the subject. Rather than dwell grimly on the pornography, this is really a show about a woman’s journey through a marriage, a union that suffers from both a lack of communication and, significantly in this case, copulation.

Templeton is wonderfully believable as Suzanne, who develops a deeper understanding of her own psyche while uncovering husband Adam’s burgeoning obsession. Suzanne’s reaction to the initial revelation is intriguing—that stumbling upon a secret stash of pornographic magazines is somehow worse than finding out about an affair—and Bickley’s play offers an interesting insight into the apportioning of blame in such situations.

There are a couple of dramatic set pieces along the way that don’t quite ring true, and their telling is an unnecessary detour from Suzanne’s emotional travels. Overall, though, this is a beautifully realised production and the hankies are out in force come the conclusion. Thankfully these are the only soiled tissues on show.