Porn Play

Like a grown-up version of Der Struwwelpeter. The message in \"Porn Play\" is unrelentingly clear. Hands above the covers kids - too much wanking over violent porn will take you down! The subject could not be more relevant.

Where better than upstairs at the Royal Court for legendary director Josie Rourke to situate this tale of (failed) intimacy in a set that forms a soft and fleshy oval shaped opening. Clever use of glowing blue and pink light create the atmosphere of late at night “alone time” where temptation may begin and with the arrival of the ingenious and incredibly tasteful flesh clad muse of masturbation (-could she have been called Clitoria) our story of addiction begins.

This play is funny, cringe-making and scary, with great performances by Ambika Mod and particularly by Will Close, yet somehow this production misses the spot. Perhaps expectations were too high. Is it the painfully obvious “clever girl” literary allusions or the lack of ambiguity in its moral message? But despite its content one has to question whether \"Porn Play\" is fully adult.

This lacking was particularly present in the finale, when our heroine was reduced to masturbating in front of her own father. Surely one of the most remarkable dramatic ace cards in the arsenal of shock that has ever been conceived and yet somehow, it failed make its trick.