Vault Festival review: Sticky Door, Katie Arnstein's funny and poignant show about sex, equality and mental health
12/02/2020
Writer and performer Katie Arnstein's one-woman show Sticky Door is about how she planned to take back control of her love life but ended up learning to live with past trauma.
It starts at Christmas 2013 when life seems to be conspiring against her. She is between acting agents, lives in flat above a fried chicken shop which means her clothes always smell of fat and her boyfriend has just dumped her.
She decides attachment is where she is going wrong and sets herself a goal of having a different lover every month.
Through a year's exploits, we not only get Katie's witty perspective on dating and casual sex - peppered with numerous cases of cystitis - but also learn more about how past and more recent traumas have affected her mental health.
Arnstein is a witty and humorous writer and an engaging performer.
She mixes humour with more serious topics such as sexual assault and depression to create a nicely paced show that is full of laughs, insight and poignancy.
Sticky Door is 60 minutes long and I loved it. It gets ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ from me and I'm looking forward to what she writes next.
You can see Sticky Door at the Vault Festival until 16 February.
It is the final play of a trilogy - although works perfectly as a standalone - and you can see all 3 at the Vault Festival on Sunday 16 Feb.
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11 theatre turn-offs (or how I whittle down the choice of what to see).
Review: Albion, Almeida Theatre - Victoria Hamilton is superb as the complex if unlikeable Audrey (until 29 February).