Its fascinating watching the assembled audience as this piece warms up. There are a few nervous titters (oh, Matron!) early on, but it isnt until a woman laughed loud at a particularly smutty line that all us chaps relaxed.
Writer Danny King worked in the porn industry from 1999 to 2002 and this is his take on that world. Our hero is Godfrey Bishop, played by Gary Beadle, who spends a year working for the fictitious magazine Bling! The piece basically takes the form of a monologue from Beale, illustrated by him and two other actors, Jessica Harris and David Squire, as were taken on a whistle-stop tour of this shady world.
The production is pretty in your face, so to speak, with discussion on hairy fannies, cockclashphobia (the reason Godfrey wont join in group sex with the models) and much else besides. Here are some good one liners (theres none so blind as the wankers), and some exploration of the darker side of the industry. Colin the stalker who becomes obsessed with one of the models is a chilling warning, though his tale rather fizzles out. The debate about whether porn is morally wrong is slightly clumsily shoehorned in when Godfrey meets a woman at a party who takes him to task. Her objection is the conventional one that porn degrades and exploits women.
This is a pretty thought provoking piece, but doesnt really tackle this difficult and controversial subject head on. Godfreys line of argument, that the women are paid and enjoy showing off their bodies may apply to the glossy magazine he works for, but surely doesnt extend to every naked body that has been put before a camera lens, not women who are tricked and sold into this degrading slavery, and certainly not under-age kids.
I think theres an interesting play in here trying to get out, but at the moment it doesnt do justice to the subject or to Beales excellent performance
My enjoyment, however, was enhanced by the fact that a couple of rows in front of me and to the side were a woman who, in the dimmed light of the auditorium, looked just like Mary Whitehouse. To see her chortle along to every cock, tit and fanny was worth the admission price alone.
