Theatre
to see a girl take her clothes off as much as the next man. it was so repressive. These days. many women see pom as a legitimate career. and directors have a choice of thousands of women. I‘m not sure how I feel about it. I don‘t agree with censorship. but by the same token. there's clearly a lot of people having a miserable time doing it.‘
For all Lowe‘s earnestness. the play promises to be very funny. ‘There's no live sex show element to it. but it‘s absolutely filthy.‘ he chuckles. ‘You can't expect porn actors to talk about things in linid Blyton terms.‘
Perhaps the re-liberalisation of attitudes over the last decade is due to the increasing consumption of pom by women. a fact that hasn‘t escaped the researches of Adrian Berry. author of last year‘s Fringe hit Hum [him to the .ijtii/k Broads. His new play Jack Pleasure ((1 until 25 Aug. 8.45pm). the second of a trilogy. tells of a disaffected late-30s coach driver. who plans to run away to the States and become a pom star.
‘l'vc talked to a lot of women. and they don’t think about it much.‘ says Berry. "l‘hcy know men use pornography. Women will use it for a laugh. and watch it with their partners. But people don‘t think about the background behind individual porn films or any of the seedier more disturbing aspectsf
His tragi-comedy shows the more debilitating side of this world of fantasy through its central character. ‘He can‘t talk about intimacy or his sexualin with anyone. not even his wife. who he’s left.’ Berry says. 'All he can talk about is being a pom star.‘
In addition to these two shows. the (iateway is presenting Rose in a Garden of Weeds (2 13 Aug.
3pm). .loan Wallace‘s play ‘It’s about two women advert- ising an erotic chatline in
a pornographic publications.
you and AOPornpgraphic can’t Fatality (15-26 Aug.
8.l()pm). a surrealist black eXpGCt porn comedy about a group of actors to actors in a porno movie _ who cause the deaths of a talk Ilke number of train commuters. Don'task. . Head Games (“Iii Street Theatre. 2 26 Aug. l().3()pm). the tale of a desperate Fringe director who decides to tip his commercial stakes by presenting an entirely pomographic play with his all male cast. looks like pulling crowds in both the fictional and real world. An old l’ringe favourite. Saucy Jack and the Space Vixens. a piece of extravagant sci-ft erotic comedy will also make a final appearance at the Assembly Big Top (2-26 Aug. 7pm). while Puppetry of the Penis at Gilded Balloon Teviot (2 Bl Aug. 9.45pm) does for the male genitalia what Tony llart did for Plasticene. And making a welcome return after l2 years away is Taboo at the (iilded Balloon 'l'eviot (2-26 Aug. midnight). which looks your sexual insecurities right in the face.
But. with all the discussion. how do we define pornography. separating it from the eroticism of an Aubrey Beardsley or a liellini'.’ Perhaps any act isolated from its full context of love. intimacy. laughter and tragedy is pornographic. I tend to think of pornography as isolation from context. The other day l was. for business reasons. stuck in a hotel in Bergen. late at night. I watched 21 ('NN' documentary about the crisis of corporate America. As unemployment and povcity increase as a direct result of the irresponsibility of a handful of greedy city executives. (‘NN chose to cover the crisis by interviewing a succession of talking heads from among the folk who created it. As a banker from Goldman Sachs droned away in a quite detached manner on the subject. as if he were the weathcmian rather than the weather. I could bare it no more. I switched to the pornographic film on the other channel. It was. by my definition. less [mrnographie
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