But far from an exploitative relationship, She and He are both middle-aged, highly educated, intellectuals – who’ve known each other since grad school - who are entering this contract with eyes wide open. And as we see thirty years fly by in five scenes which gently elide into each other, they debate her staunch feminism, the gender politics that shapes their sexual behaviour, the social conditioning that governs their emotional interdependence. For an intimacy does grow between them, a unique connection forged.
For unexpectedly, this turns out to be a love story. And it is unexpected for there’s so little visible emotion in the piece, whether the sizzling flame of undeniable sexual attraction or the heartbeating intensity of romantic love. Instead it is the intellectual intercourse that we witness and that is brought vividly to life by an achingly cagey Saskia Reeves, the emotional bruises of her previously marriages not quite gone, and a grizzled Danny Webb, perpetually horny but eventually maturing into something almost touching.