Theatre / 44 Sex Acts in One Week, written by David Finnigan. The Playhouse. Until July 20. Reviewed by SAMARA PURNELL.

A dance party welcomes the audience into the theatre – records are spun by actors in overalls and fluorescent frogs heads, with a wolf in there too.

Two tables with a multitude of props and a sparkly silver curtain adorn the stage. The audience has come primed and in good spirits, thanks in part to the “ruined orgasm” cocktail imbibed in the foyer and the media wall complete with blow up fruit props, enthusiastically and creatively employed by theatre-goers on the way in. Strap in for 44 Sex Acts in One Week, a hectic ride that shoots off in several directions.

Bali-residing, self-proclaimed Sex Goddess and influencer Malaine (Rebecca Massey) has written a book to “change your life”, in 44 Sex Acts. With a display (mimed, not literal) of pelvic-floor fortitude and the proclamation that the audience has not yet tapped into their primal, ancestral sexual power and is therefore in the metaphorical visitor’s car park on the journey to enlightenment, the small cast breathes life into David Finnigan’s script.

Protagonists Celina (Amber McMahon) and Alab (Aaron Tsindos) work at She Squad, a sensationalist, clickbait website. In a bid to be taken seriously and paid accordingly, Celina takes on the task, under duress from her loose-unit of a boss also played by Massey in a Devil-Wears-Prada meets Prue-from-Kath-and-Kim personification, of executing all 44 sex acts by the end of the week for a feature article. With no forthcoming partner in sight, Celina is left high and dry until Alab and his backpack of rare frogs are unwittingly roped in to the experiment.

Alab, who is secretly an animal and climate-change activist with grand plans to cause chaos, agrees to give Celina a hand, on the proviso that he can keep his backpack of frogs in her damp and mozzie-riddled apartment until her impending eviction. He and Celina get down to business, to see what unfolds in the moist environment.

The actors all have perfect comedic timing and deliver the script with the right amount of melodrama, angst, sarcasm and awkwardness.

Nancy Denis is brilliant and hilarious in dual roles as the dead-pan Remely, Celina’s millennial colleague and Kalil, the “brother” mate and fellow activist of Alab.

As the sex acts unfold, some utilising fruit, others in a montage to pop music and love ballads, none involving nudity or realistic sex, and some not particularly “successful”, the conversations deepen between Celina and Alab as they let down their guards and begin to gain the confidence to pursue their real passions of writing and activism. When Kalil and Remely agree to an orgy, the scene with Denis playing the two roles simultaneously is hilarious.

Thematically, Canberra playwright Finnigan has thrown in everything, including the kitchen sink, which might even be somewhere on the foley table. His interests in science, climate change and large-scale climate disasters such as the Canberra bushfires are directly drawn on.

In 44 Sex Acts in One Week, the unsavoury lifespan of a condom is crystallised and the footprint of sexual encounters have the potential to lead to apocalyptic events.

Malaine believes in the power of sex to bring wealth, confidence and boundless energy from the universe. Through a myriad of staging tactics, Celina and Alab begin to harness the growing power and confidence rooted in their work experiment, giving Alab the balls to pull off his outrageous plans for rehoming animals in the zoo and Celina to stick it to her boss.

With lines and timing that hit the spot in this madcap production, new-found confidence may lead to dreams being fulfilled, and ideals may lead to the demise of humankind as the apex predator, or at least some sex-coach carnage in the climax of the production. The falling in love of the protagonists is less than believable, but the entertaining journey is sprinkled with TLC (and Michael Bolton).

There is a lot to take in in this show. The choice is up to the audience to ponder the potential of an animal Armageddon or switch off and enjoy the ride. Either way, 44 Sex Acts in One Week depicts the power of sex to lift up humankind or bring it to its knees.