Potty-mouthed couple in The Vulgarians does not play for the prudes

Louis Viljoen's latest comedy is as much about sexual discovery as it is about keeping a relationship fresh by stringing together dirty words. By Keith Bain

- Keith Bain

Emily Child (left) and Nicholas Pauling in The Vulgarians. Nicholas Pauling and Emily Child in The Vulgarians.

(Photos: Daniel Manners)

A meet-cute this is not. In fact, by the time we meet the husband and wife played by Nicholas Pauling and Emily Child in The Vulgarians, the new, electric and eccentric little play by Louis Viljoen, the couple would appear to have had quite enough of one another. There’s even a frisson of danger, a suggestion that the husband’s fury might spill over into violence.

It’s complicated, too, by whatever you might know about Viljoen’s way with words: sometimes the violence is in the language, sometimes the words feel like weapons, but sometimes his words are placeholders for actual bloodlust and gut-spilling atrocities due to be meted out. Rest assured, though, that this is not a play about physical violence. Or at least not the sort that involves blood and dismemberment.

The substrate of the play - short, fast-paced, hard work for actors and audience alike — is familiar.

A couple, at home after some sort of social gathering, are in the middle of a domestic battle. She has infringed upon the rules of marriage, created reason for him to suspect her of infidelity. The row that unfolds involves less shouting and screaming and physical aggression and a far more creative war of words. And herein lies the rub.