In a powerful depiction of the turbulent year Britain faced in 2005, Organised Crime Theatre presents Pornography. Just as the Olympic bid was announced to be successful and the country anticipated the arrival of Live 8, no one expected the terrorist attacks that were about to hit London.
A cast of eleven young people take turns acting out five different sequences, giving snapshots of the lives of four typical Londoners. Named Pornography perhaps due to the taboo subjects the play deals with, the performance starts by following a schoolboy whose crush on his teacher leads to him stalking her. The next sequence moves on to a university lecturer with an unhealthy relationship with one of his former students. Also explored is the story of a new mother who is suspicious of her husband, and an incestuous brother and sister who induced gasps from the audience. The final act is an ordinary father from East London who appears to have some involvement in the terrorist attacks.
As each small group act out their own sequence, the rest of the cast help by playing the extras on the tube or in the street. There is no better way of watching such monumental events unfold than through the eyes of ordinary citizens who were there at the time. We watch as the group question whether or not the city has the capacity to cope with the Olympics, then soon after, they watch their get city torn apart by terrorist attacks. The acting is impeccable and the links between the sequences are smooth and faultless, even though nothing links them other than the city in which they live and a similar taste for coffee. The audience were captivated throughout the whole performance, as subjects not usually discussed were merged into a hard-hitting tale of a city on the brink of chaos.
