It's the 1970s. The world is changing.
Attitudes towards sex are changing. This is a story about Deep Throat, the
adult movie that would alter perceptions on sex: showing the public it was not
necessarily something seedy, sex and sexual desires can be celebrated by all. The
play clarifies that not all of the porn industry was abusive and bad back then,
it was the misogynistic and violent actions of certain people that turned the
industry into something it was originally not; destroying lives in the process.
Performed by Vertigo Theatre, the main
focus of the play was on the life stories of Harry Reems (Richard Allen) and
Linda Lovelace (Celine Constantinides) who both starred in Deep Throat. Reems
was an actor, trying to find work, and entered the porn industry as a way of
making easy money. He starred in a few films before shooting Deep Throat, where
he attempted to make it into a "proper film" with artistry, a script,
and characters. Little did he know the consequences that would occur from making
such a controversial film. The story of Lovelace followed her relationship with
Chuck (Alex Thompson) who acted as her manager selling her for sex. It was a harrowing
and tragic narrative.
I admired the play for not watering down
the horrors that Linda went through. With the current "Me Too"
movement, it's important to confront the pain of the past and remind society
how disgusting and wrong the sexual abuse of women is. The clear and
over-arching point being: Reems and Lovelace were trying to make porn into something
artistic, beautiful, and sexually freeing; everyone else such as The Mob turned
it into something dirty, exploitive, and abusive. It's important to note that
the play does not advocate or celebrate the negative content, but simply presents
it to us at a time when we need to hear it the most. We need to raise awareness
on topics like this and people should not have to suffer in silence.
Allen gave an energised performance as Reems,
playing him with confidence, likeability, and flair. Constantinides was
absolutely on the same level as her co-star, we got to see her character's naivity
and happiness at the beginning until she got beaten and forced into situations
she didn't want to be in. Those negative scenarious were acted out incredibly
by her: she was such a brave actress to put herself in Lovelace's shoes,
presenting enormous vulnerability and emotion, even if this was just a play. There
was evidence of performance style exploration, as other characters in the play
were exaggerated like the kind of acting that would have been done in the porn
films.
The script was full of detail and informative
too, perhaps a little too much though causing some scenes to have pacing issues.
We had the opportunity to comprehend the different sides to porn: the awkwardness
of it, the unrealistic elements, the darker sides, the business components, and
the cheesiness of it all. Unfortunately, the lighting and projection felt
thrown together, perhaps it was the change of venue compared to where they had
performed it in the past. There was nothing particularly neat in how the design
was set up on stage, no real attempt to properly shape the lighting in the
space or project the images effectively on the screen. Some cues were rather slow
too.
Verdict: Very well written play, which sensitively
handled darker material, brilliant acting from all, however the other
production elements were not up to scratch.
Reviewer - Sam Lowe
On - 6/9/18
No comments:
Post a Comment