With sex, sauces, and a serious case of IBS, GUTTED serves up chaos with real chemistry, even if the recipe needs refining.Rating
Good!
What if the very thing that made you fall in love was the thing that got ripped away? In GUTTED, food isn’t just a meal; it’s foreplay, obsession, and the load-bearing wall of a relationship. This filthy, funny two-hander follows Reuben (Morgan Beale) and Honey (Louise Lacassagne) through a romance built almost entirely around the stove, the sheets and, increasingly, the bathroom.
Reuben is a talented chef, and it is his cooking that first gets Honey hot under the collar. But as their relationship develops, it becomes clear that this is no ordinary appreciation for good food. For Honey, food is not just a route to seduction – it is the seduction itself. GUTTED embraces this wonderfully deranged premise, building towards a gloriously unhinged culinary sex scene where the pair cry out “Chimichurri!”, “Béchamel!”, “Béarnaise!” as they reach a climax that is, quite literally, saucy.
This is the play at its filthiest and funniest. Beale and Lacassagne throw themselves into the material with complete commitment, and their chemistry gives the production real warmth beneath all the silliness. They understand exactly how ridiculous this world is, but they never distance themselves from it. Instead, they play every bizarre moment with complete sincerity – and that is precisely why the comedy works.
But when Honey is diagnosed with IBS after struggling to finish her heavily ganached birthday cake, the play takes an unexpectedly thoughtful turn. The very thing that brought them together is now the thing threatening to pull them apart. Beneath the jokes is a genuinely interesting question: when the defining feature of a relationship disappears, what is left? Their increasingly desperate hunt for a new shared kink takes them to some strange places, climaxing – there’s no better word – in a moment of ecstatic devotion to Tetra-Pak.
Where GUTTED stumbles is in turning its brilliant central idea into a fully satisfying story. The play races between an awkward date, sexual set-pieces and digestive disasters without always stitching them into a clear emotional arc. It is an excellent tasting menu of ideas rather than a complete meal. There are stretches where the script seems more obsessed by its own knowledge of labneh and za’atar and Sunday roasts at The Devonshire than by what any of it says about these two people.
The staging occasionally needs a firmer hand too. Some blackouts do not quite land, while entrances through a rear curtain sometimes disrupt the rhythm rather than enhance it. Many jokes hit with real snap, but the weaker ones create moments where the pace loses momentum.
Even so, GUTTED is a bold, filthy and genuinely original piece of theatre. It is funny, sexy and completely committed to its own absurdity. With a tighter narrative and more polished staging, it could become a truly satisfying theatrical feast. For now, it remains a very enjoyable starter.
Written by Amber Charlie Conroy
Directed by Reya Muller
Assistant Director: Isabelle Tyner
Sound Designer: Tom Muller
Lighting Designer: Andy Owen Cook
GUTTED has completed its performance at Riverside Studios’ Bitesize Festival
