PORN PLAY

Royal Court

★★★★★

“a magnetic show that goes straight in the deep end”

Pain and pleasure, desire and shame, spot-on comedy and gut-churning uneasiness; you can’t have the one without the other in the world of Porn Play written by Sophia Chetin-Leuner. Debates on sex, porn and John Milton get turned upside down and presented in a way that makes you sit on the edge of your seat from beginning to end.

Ani is an academic and a teacher who just won a prestigious award for her recently published book. Her life seems perfect, with her supportive, though a bit toxic, boyfriend Liam on her side and her career on the rise. Here’s the catch: she’s addicted to violent porn and masturbation. What starts off as a conversation about the double standards between men watching porn and women watching porn, which Liam points out is ‘just different’, transforms into a free fall into shame, self-destruction and an intriguing kind of addiction. As she alienates the people around her and her career gets affected, the question arises: will she snap out of it and take control of her addiction?

The whole cast gives riveting performances. Ani’s Father, played by Asif Khan, is exceptional; he is the figure that grounds her, the one who reminds her that she’s more than her addiction and that her struggles might lead to something beautiful in the end. He has a calm strength in him, with just the right amount of fatherly stubbornness. Lizzy Connolly is a comedic genius, making the audience laugh with her mere presence no matter which character she portrays, from the sympathetic friend to the triggered student and the unbelievably accurate medical professional. Will Close, who also plays various characters, has an impressive range, playing the insecure and soft Liam in one scene and Ani’s student who lets his sexual beast loose when Ani asks him to do what he wants with her in another.

Ambika Mod does an exceptionally delicate job portraying Ani. The self-loathing, confusion and fixation with brutal sexual imagery increases as the play goes on, but in a particularly vulnerable manner. She’s gradually going underwater and by the end, where she delivers a fascinating monologue about John Milton’s poem Lucidas and masturbates in front of her father, she makes your heart break as well as your skin crawl in a disturbing climax.

It always is a burden off a director’s shoulders when the script is strong in itself. But that doesn’t mean that director Josie Rourke needs any less credit for Porn Play. She handles the heavy and uncomfortable topics with a balance between seriousness and humour and the more sexual or aggressive scenes with candour. The transitions between scenes, which were to be honest quite a few, are carried out swiftly and enriched by the mysterious presence of a woman who resembles Eve. This female figure is at times playful while at other times sorrowful, possibly representing Ani’s lust and addiction specifically and the objectification (or maybe the empowerment) of women in general.

Designer Yimei Zhao creates a circular, almost vulva-like, stage with different levels that seem incredibly life-like. It’s soft and beige and under its compartments there is an array of props, pulled out and put back in leaving the stage always pristine and ready for the next scene. Some subtle colourful lights within each circle enhance Mark Henderson’s overall naturalistic lighting design, which alternates between bright, lecture hall-appropriate lighting and slightly darker and more ominous lighting.

Your instinct tells you to look away, but you simply cannot. It’s a magnetic show that goes straight in the deep end to talk about sexual desire and the taboos that come with it. There is no sugarcoating, just a beautifully rounded protagonist who loses control in a world that expects women to be everything; and nothing.

PORN PLAY

Royal Court

Reviewed on 13th November 2025

by Stephanie Christodoulidou

Photography by Helen Murray

Previously reviewed at this venue:

COW | DEER | ★★★★★ | September 2025

DEAF REPUBLIC | ★★★★★ | September 2025

AFTER THE ACT | ★★ | May 2025

MANHUNT | ★★★★ | April 2025

A GOOD HOUSE | ★★★★ | January 2025

THE BOUNDS | ★★★ | June 2024

LIE LOW | ★★★★ | May 2024

BLUETS | ★★★ | May 2024

PORN PLAY

★★★★

“The onstage chemistry is faultless, funny and occasionally emotional, without being mawkish”

A little over a decade ago, three students fresh out of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art decided to make some mischief. So, with dead end day jobs and pens in hand, they made ‘Mischief’; the theatre company that is now celebrating ten years in the West End with their inaugural “The Play That Goes Wrong”. Many offshoots have sprung up in the meantime, adopting the same formula. It won’t be alright on the night – of that you can be sure. And their most recent, “Mind Mangler: Member of the Tragic Circle”, stays true to their trademark.

But despite this element of predictability, there are quite a few surprises in store. Not to mention plenty of laughs. And the more we are drawn into the show, the more our respect grows for the odd couple who somehow manage (only just) to hold it all together on stage. Billed as a ‘two-man solo show’, it follows illusionist, magician and mentalist, The Mind Mangler (Henry Lewis), poking fun but also paying homage to the tradition of the magic show. Aided (or otherwise) by his hapless and hopeless stooge (Jonathan Sayer). Lewis and Sayer wrote the piece, along with fellow Mischief maker Henry Shields. Penn and Teller famously collaborated in the process, and the thinly disguised virtuosity of some of the tricks – even if they are apt to go wrong – certainly shines bright through the tongue-in-cheek delivery.

It takes great charisma to successfully portray a character who has no charisma. Just as it takes great talent to convincingly depict the talentless. This pair have it in spades. Lewis is imposing yet relaxed. Quick witted, he is a master at reading his audience (though evidently not their minds) and reacting with finely honed improvisatory skills. Sayer emerges from the auditorium as a planted audience member, making much of this concept throughout. This is their modus operandi. It is stretched a little thin, but the performances keep the entertainment factor nudging the high end of the scales. Not restrained by the magic circle it revolves in, Lewis and Sayer also look up to – and recall – comedy classics such as Laurel and Hardy. The onstage chemistry is faultless, funny and occasionally emotional, without being mawkish.

We never quite lose sight of the fact, however, that this is a scripted play and not a magic act. And we suspect that Sayer is not the only plant in the audience. But it never matters, as we are always rewarded with a punchline delivered with hilarious precision. The banter is delightful, and the lampooning is spontaneous and refreshing. Although we can see what’s coming, the performers suddenly twist it around, so we suddenly view it from a completely different angle. Lewis professes to be able to taste people’s names, smell their job, hear the thoughts of playing cards. We love to see him fail.

As the evening progresses, things do start to go right. Hannah Sharkey’s staging is slick and as precise as the mechanisms behind some of the illusions. But none of this lessens the comic impact, and we still leave the auditorium beaming from ear to ear. It feels personal, as though we have been part of a select few rather than one in a crowded West End theatre. That is where the true magic lies. You don’t need to be a mind reader to predict its ongoing success. We all love a bit of ‘Mischief’.

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PORN PLAY

★★★★★

Royal Court

PORN PLAY

Royal Court

★★★★★

“a magnetic show that goes straight in the deep end”