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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Chris Wiegand

La Vie Secrète des Vieux review – older people reveal the full glory of their sex lives

La Vie Secrète des Vieux.
A kaleidoscopic portrait of pleasure … La Vie Secrète des Vieux. Photograph: Christophe Raynaud de Lage

Warning! The people in this show are likely to die at any moment, we are told. Don’t believe them? They are already one fewer in number than they were in rehearsals. But, as the disarming introduction suggests, surely it is better to die on stage than in a nursing home.

The gallows humour in this absorbing hour of documentary theatre at the Avignon festival is outdone only by its unzipped ribaldry. Mohamed El Khatib invited people aged over 75 to tell him about their experiences of sex and love. His resulting show, performed by a motley assortment of non-actors sharing their stories, is joyful, tender, sad, riotous and eye-watering in its kaleidoscopic portrait of pleasure from first fumblings to happy endings.

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