Edinburgh Fringe: Sex with Animals at Free Sisters

Ryan Good is tall – almost too tall for the top deck of the comedy bus in the courtyard of the Free Sisters, where his one-man show, Sex with Animals, takes place nightly throughout the Edinburgh Fringe.  Audiences queue out of the door, and at least half of those waiting tonight won’t be able to get seats for the wildly popular show.  Provocatively titled, the show is a whirlwind storytelling ride through the mating world of the animal kingdom with elements of stand-up, well-placed media, and revelatory confession that flirts promiscuously with proselytism.  Originally from Brooklyn, Ryan is an ingenuous performer with the innocent looks of a Kentucky farmhand, if farmhands dressed in skin-hugging, head-to-toe lycra and talked graphically about sex.

Sex with Animals was born during a 2012 trip to the Galapagos: Good arrived in the aftermath of the passing of Lonesome George, last known individual of the Pinta Island Tortoise subspecies, and one of the caretakers entertained him with a tale of George’s last sex act.  Good was struck with the realisation that we are, all of us, animals, and decided to make a show.  The result is an often touching, sometimes uncomfortable, always eye-opening look into the sex lives of animals, human and otherwise, and a poignant examination of the heartbreaking barriers we’ve erected between ourselves.

Good’s approach to sex and love is unconventional to say the least, but to leave it there would be to minimise this honest, endearing individual and his work.  Educational, entertaining, bizarre and simultaneously intimately familiar, his style pulls us into the fold, creates a family of us, and unites us in a joyous celebration of life and the limitless possibilities for happiness and fulfillment we’ve almost convinced ourselves don’t exist.  Sex with Animals masks itself as a silly, ridiculous look at silly, ridiculous acts, but don’t be confused by the vehicle – the drama inside packs quite a punch and leaves you reconsidering your own position with respect to these most basic parts of what it means to be human, and to be alive.

Verdict: ★★★★★

William Glenn

Sex with Animals is on at the Free Sisters until 25^th August 2013 as part of the Laughing Horse Free Festival, for further information or to book visit here. For further information about the Edinburgh Fringe Festival visit here.