The Human Touch

Employing many of his regular actors, Cox also continues his distinctive take on established themes with this exploration of various forms of faith, affection and communion (which amount in certain cases to the same thing). When a chorister finds herself drawn to a more than regularly supportive, and older male, benefactor, the pressures her new and complex liaison puts on her existing relationship are investigated with a nod to both art and lust. There’s no denying Cox operates in a singular, direct and unironic register, which occasionally finds him straying into either banality or a slightly forced heightening of the moment. But there is a real and sometimes disconcerting enquiry at the heart of the work that cannot be dismissed. And there’s no doubting his seriousness and sincerity, however much certain gender relations seem in need of refreshment.