Blood

Halyon Productions

Two lovers meet in Jamaica on a wild holiday, and are swept along by lust and a voodoo marriage. It makes for an amazing show. And there's a crucial hidden extra - a sexual demon, a succubus, is attached as a troika to their partnership and unless sexual fantasies and desires are released, then death will ensue. Recreating the story from beyond the grave Benjamin Brown plays the black American husband, and Sarah McGuinness the white Irish wife, both giving zesty, exciting and funny performances, and making a perfect acting combination. There may have only been two of them, with just two chairs as props, but that was all that was needed since the play itself was so absorbing and powerful.

Details: Gilded Balloon Teviot, 2 - 26 Aug, 3.45pm (4.45pm), prices vary, ffp 113

ThreeWeeks 12 August 2002

Blood

Kirsty Knaggs
THEATRE: Gilded Balloon Teviot (venue 14)

WHAT do you do when the passion has left your marriage? For the couple in Blood, the usual solutions of affairs, therapy, trips to Ann Summers and romantic weekends away are not an option. They have a mere hour to regain their sexual spark or they are doomed to die a hideous death.

That might sound a little extreme, but this couple is not just a couple. When they were married by a voodoo priestess in Jamaica, a third party was bound together with them in their union; a female demon who feeds on sexual pleasure, a succubus named Blood.

Blood is furious with the couple for allowing their passion for each other to die, and orders them to relate their deepest sexual fantasies to her so that she can feed on them. If they do not satisfy her, she will kill them.

Blood is about much more than just sex, however; it explores racism, love, communication and gender roles. Acted with passion by Sarah McGuinness and the beautiful Benjamin Brown, this is a dark and erotic piece of theatre that is definitely for adults only.

3:45pm, today. Runs until 26 August

The Scotsman 16 August 2002

THE BIG ISSUE

Blood

A sometimes violent, consistently funny examination of sex, in which a couple's wedding by a voodoo priest takes, well, let's call it a funny turn. The unhappily married couple are forced to examine their deepest, most intimate sexual fantasies truthfully, in a show from former Fringe First winners Halyon Productions.

Gilded Balloon, until Aug 26.

The Big Issue 15 August 2002

THE STAGE

Blood

At first awkwardly, then passionately they reveal their innermost sexual fantasies and then something magical happens as it kicks into an emotional rollercoaster that is alternatively funny, sexy, moody and spine-tingling.

Writer and director Michael Phillip Edwards neatly dissects racial as well as gender politics to create a daring, spirited work that effortlessly makes the case for female and male sexuality in the same breath.

Nick Awde

The Stage 22 August 2002

Gilded Balloon Box Office: 0131 226 2151