London's Royal Court Theatre is currently staging a ground-breaking and unsettling new production that boldly tackles the complex subject of pornography and addiction. Sophia Chitin-Leuner's Porn Play, directed by Josie Rourke, has been generating significant attention for its daring approach to a difficult topic.
An Immersive and Unsettling Experience
From the moment audiences arrive for the performance, the experience is deliberately discomfiting. Theatregoers are issued with shoe-covers before entering the transformed intimate space Upstairs at the Royal Court, which has been designed to resemble the contours of a body with squishy beige banks of seating sloping down to an empty oval pit.
The fleshy, feminine-inspired space becomes multiple settings throughout the performance as props including clothes, laptops, duvets, and medical equipment are pulled from hidden crevices and seams. This clever design allows the environment to shift seamlessly between a bedroom, doctor's room, and office, reflecting the protagonist's fragmented reality.
A Compelling Central Performance
At the heart of this provocative production stands Ambika Mod, best known for her role as Emma in the television adaptation of One Day. She delivers what critics are calling an astonishing performance as Ani, a super-articulate academic and Milton expert who should be celebrating her latest professional achievement.
Instead, we witness Ani's life unravel as her relationship with pornography evolves from experimental fun to compulsive, uncontrollable addiction. The play opens with Ani enjoying apple pie with her boyfriend Liam, played by Will Close, in a scene that deliberately echoes the Adam and Eve narrative from Milton's Paradise Lost.
The domestic harmony quickly shatters as Liam confronts Ani about her preference for violent porn over intimate connection with him. While she initially defends her habits as harmless stress relief that "isn't real," the play powerfully demonstrates the very real damage occurring to her relationships and psychological wellbeing.
The Descent into Darkness
As Ani's addiction intensifies, the production takes audiences to increasingly disturbing places. In one particularly horrifying scene, she persuades a younger male student to tie her up, blindfold her, and "do anything he wants with her" - a request that culminates in him reaching for his metal bike lock.
Mod's transformation throughout the performance is remarkable. She begins as animated, sparkling, and beautiful, but gradually becomes haunted, dead behind the eyes, and ultimately pathetic as her compulsive behavior destroys her ability to live in the moment, even driving her to act out in public, inappropriate places.
The damage extends beyond her relationship with Liam, as she's caught by both her father and best friend, yet remains powerless to stop the behavior that is clearly causing her both physical and psychological harm.
Porn Play continues its run at the Royal Court Theatre until December 13, offering London theatre audiences an important, uncomfortable examination of addiction in the digital age. This brilliantly executed production shines necessary light into very dark corners of contemporary experience, establishing Sophia Chitin-Leuner as a significant new voice in British theatre.
