Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus

What are the differences between men and women? According to American relationship counsellor John Grey: many, and fundamental. Women talk all the time about nothing. Men are surly and uncommunicative. Women have a natural emotional flow (giggle). Men place a lot of importance on sausages (snigger). And so on.

Fresh from a European tour, this stage adaptation of the best-selling book Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus works predictably cliché ground. Presented in the style of an "interactive seminar"—in reality, more of a monologue with some cursory banter—the audience is treated to a run-down of the book's major lessons. Women want to talk about their problems. Men want to retreat to their "man-cave." Women are like gardens and need constant care and attention (keep the bushes trimmed – guffaw). Men are like dolphins and need a constant supply of fish (chortle). Ad nauseum.

With his white lab coat, pointer stick and Powerpoint-style visual aids, veteran stage and television performer Ian Houghton takes a pretty convicing stab at a TV-doctor-cum-gameshow-host. He manages the audience proficiently while keeping an accessible and consistent pace. But his performance can't compensate for material so thin it borders on transparent.

Ultimately, this is quite a bizarre concept for a Fringe show: a relationship seminar with a jab in the direction of comedy. Avid readers of bottom-of-the-rack womens' magazines and fans of pop gender psychology might find some entertainment here, but twenty years on from the book's publication the material has aged poorly and seems little more than a string of hackneyed stereotypes.