Well now, it’s a weird and wonderful feeling, two nights in, to see a bunch of actors take a curtain call and realise, with a thrill, that they are kind of there because of you. I could barely concentrate on the first night of the Virginity Project show; so nervous was I for the performers. How do they do it? How does one stand on a stage, looking into a big black void, and deliver a performance that rests entirely upon the words of one person? These are monologues in the truest sense.

What broke the tension for me on the first night was, surprisingly, the moment when the narrator invites audience members to come and sit in ‘the virginity chair’. i.e. sit on stage and tell a bunch of strangers about one of the most potentially embarrassing moments of your entire life. There was nervous tittering amongst the very British audience until, astonishingly – and with a little nudge from my companion who could see that he was halfway there already – an 18-year-old boy dived onto the stage and spilt the beans. Not only that but he made the audience HOWL with laughter as he did so. His recollection of what was going through his mind as he urged himself not to cut 'the moment’ too short was a showstopper.

As an aside, I have a stateside friend in town that I haven’t seen for almost 5 years. Things being the way they have been recently, I hadn’t had time to respond to his calls. When we finally spoke this morning he confessed that his ‘plan b’ had been to sneak into the show and sit in the virginity chair at the appropriate moment. Now that would have got my attention.

This is a small fringe production, not a luxurious big budget number but I feel, instinctively, that it has legs. We have enough material to always keep it fresh. The stories could change according to the season and so could the cast members. More to the point, the audience reaction will always be different. Sometimes they laugh, sometimes they don’t. Sometimes you can hear a pin drop. Particularly when the actor who plays Ash, the man with motor neurone disease, recounts the brave steps he took to lose his virginity.

What I really love is the way that each time someone does make that leap out of the darkness and sit in the chair, every single person in the room is rooting for them. You could cut the empathy with a knife because we’ve all been there. We all have some comprehension of what a vulnerable moment virginity loss is and now, someone is choosing to relive it in the company of others. I’ve considered doing it myself to tell the truth. But don’t watch this space, I’ll probably chicken out.

Whilst I’m here, could I ask you to vote for this blog in the Cosmopolitan Blog Awards 2011? I have been shortlisted in the final and your vote could seriously help swing it. The Virginity Project is in the sex & relationships category and my other blog, Big Guy Small Dog Blog in the Handpicked Media lifestyle category. You can vote here. THANK YOU!

The Virginity Project show is also being live streamed here on the night of each performance.