A provocative new production at London's Royal Court theatre is pushing theatrical boundaries with its unflinching exploration of violent pornography addiction and its impact on modern relationships.
From Noble Characters to Narcissistic Addiction
Ambika Mod, best known for her roles in This Is Going to Hurt and One Day, makes a dramatic departure from playing what she calls "very noble characters who die" to portraying Ani, a 30-year-old academic grappling with a debilitating addiction to violent pornography.
In Sophia Chetin-Leuner's Porn Play, which opened this month, Mod's character appears to have it all: she's an award-winning academic reinterpreting John Milton's Paradise Lost, admired by mentors and students alike. Yet beneath this successful exterior lies a compulsive behaviour that sees her constantly masturbating to violent porn, even in inappropriate situations that threaten to unravel her career and personal relationships.
"My initial thoughts when I read the script were: 'What a fucking great play, what a fucking great character, what an interesting thing that I've never seen before,'" Mod reveals about her decision to take on this challenging role.
Eight Years in the Making
Playwright Sophia Chetin-Leuner began writing Porn Play eight years ago while studying at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. Her research uncovered how internet algorithms expose children as young as twelve to increasingly violent pornography, shaping their understanding of intimacy and sexual preferences during formative years.
"The internet has just ruined what, in essence, could be a really gorgeous exploration of different kinks," Chetin-Leuner explains. "By the time people are becoming sexually active, they've absorbed so much that it's shaped their idea of intimacy, their sexual preferences, everything."
Some of the play's most startling details, including a scene where Ani visits her GP after masturbating so frequently she causes physical injury, were drawn from real-life interviews with porn addicts conducted during Chetin-Leuner's research in the United States.
Staging the Unstageable
Director Josie Rourke, former artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse, brings her considerable experience to the challenge of portraying constant masturbation on stage. She approaches these graphic scenes with the same technical precision she would apply to staging a death in Shakespeare.
"One of the nice things about having been a theatre director for a couple of decades is that it's possible for me to look at a scene very practically," Rourke says. "Your brain is thinking: 'How do we do that?' using exactly the same technical bits that you'd use for, 'How are we going to kill Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet?'"
Rourke recalls earlier directorial challenges, including a production of Loyal Women that required staging a tarring and feathering. For her, the key question is always: "How do you make it eloquent? Although what occurs in the play is extremely graphic, how do we have the audience feel like the character, and not like they're observing the character?"
Beyond Shock Value
Despite the provocative subject matter, the creative team insists Porn Play explores much broader themes than pornography addiction alone. The production delves into questions of shame, grief, authenticity, and the patriarchal structures that shape female desire.
Ani's academic work on Milton's Paradise Lost becomes increasingly relevant as she argues that Milton's portrayal of Eve represents a form of penis worship, suggesting the poem allows for powerful female desire and sexuality. This reinterpretation positions Milton as both proto-feminist and "horrible arsehole," according to Chetin-Leuner.
The play also examines generational conflicts in discussions about sexuality. Ani's unravelling accelerates when she describes rape as "sexy" during an academic discussion, offending her Gen Z students despite her insistence that she was analysing Milton's perspective rather than endorsing sexual violence.
Mod, who identifies as neither fully millennial nor Gen Z, observes: "We are not given the grace of nuance and complexity in any of our discussions. It feels so healthy to sit in the swirl of this play, because outside it, binaries are becoming stronger and stronger."
Addiction as Search for Connection
At its heart, Porn Play presents addiction as a tragic search for love and connection. Mod describes Ani's journey as "trying to get her to interact with the real world. Trying to get her back to a place where she remembered that she was loved."
The creative team specifically resisted pressure to make Ani more "likable," with Rourke countering that demand with the word "heroic" in production meetings. "No one's going, 'Is Macbeth likable enough, though?'" Mod points out, highlighting the double standard often applied to female characters.
Rourke emphasises that the production aims to create "a poetic space" rather than simply shock audiences. "I don't want anybody leaving Porn Play shocked and trembling; I want to open up the poetic space within their own sense of shame, their own sense of who they are."
Porn Play continues its run at the Royal Court theatre in London until 13th December, offering audiences a challenging exploration of addiction, desire, and the search for authentic connection in the digital age.
