1972: The Future of Sex

Wardrobe Ensemble’s throwback to the heyday of flares and flock wallpaper is, on the face of it, a load of retro fun. But it also explores adolescent sex and sexuality in a profound and tender way.

Christine is deciding whether to lose her virginity to her boyfriend. Tessa and Anna fall in love across the aisle of a record store. Penny falls for her gender and sexuality professor Martin. Anton wants to dress as a woman.

The ensemble works tightly together, moving swiftly across the stage and switching between acting as characters and as narrators. They stand at microphones from each corner of the space providing narration and sound effects, while Tom Crosley-Thorne plays a soundtrack of funk guitar.  

The narrators occasionally flash forward to the 21st century, exposing the gulf between then and now: Penny’s knowledge of the eroticism and the mechanics of sex comes from D H Lawrence, not from Pornhub. 

By the end, sorting through all the physicality, all the narratives, it becomes clear that these characters have been picked very specifically. They're the consequences of critical moments in sexual history: Germaine Greer's The Female Eunuch, Bowie's androgynous Ziggy Stardust in heavy make up, the women’s lib movement. Wardrobe Ensemble make a strong case for 1972, quite specifically, being an extremely important year in an extremely important decade for sex.