1 BED, 2PLAYS– are 2 plays that go very well together; they’re both set in one bed. And they’re both about love. Well sex actually. But in very different ways.

Ratchet Theatre were last on the road with Dark Vanilla Jungle, Philip Ridley’s brilliantly intense one woman show (all 1hr 50 mins of it) for which critics said “amazing”, “a brilliant performance” and “Gemma Whelan could not have done any better, Katie Bottoms was astonishing”. The Bed Plays are still about desire and the search for love but both have a different take on the processes involved in getting there.

FREAK - by Anna Jordan tells the often painfully frank stories of Leah and Georgie as they come to terms with their sex lives. Georgie (Katie Bottoms) is 30 and in a downwards spiral, having just quit her job, broken up with her long-term boyfriend, and taken a job at a strip club. Leah (Hetty Elliott) is 15 and is nervously anticipating her “first time”, and spends her time practising different sexual positions on the double bed which the two share.

As these two deeply personal and at times very bittersweet monologues finally interlock, the play finds a natural finale, though it’s not one that either would have anticipated; control and vulnerability are as flexible as each other and both play their part in this riveting and contemporary drama.

Afterglow - by Eric C Peterson is not as intense as Freak and is written as a comedy. Though for those who might have been in the protagonists’ position it might not be that funny. Called simply “a man” and “a woman” the couple find themselves in bed together through circumstance. Although the woman appears to hold the experiential high ground the couple repeat the situation several times more, each time the passion becoming less evident and the boredom factor increasing.