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

★★★★

“Neil Hurst and Jodie Prenger’s writing is wild and lewd but is equally sharp, and intelligently plays with words”

If you’ve been in the news this year, or are a showbiz personality of any sort, or even merely a major player in a current West End musical, you should be advised to steer clear of “A Very Very Bad Cinderella”. Unless you’re some sort of masochist. None of the above escapes the scattershot onslaught of bawdy jokes and devil-may-care references that are loaded into this most unseasonal of seasonal pantomimes. Thrown out into the audience like sweets, not everyone will catch the in-jokes, and a great many go over our heads.

The musical theatre world is well and truly ransacked. The main casualty that lies in its wake is political correctness. Despite the obligatory use of a snow machine at this time of year, this is not a show for snowflakes. It doesn’t take itself seriously, and the audience are invited (no – make that ‘forced’) to follow suit. To say that this is an ‘alternative’ take on ‘Cinderella’ is a bit of an understatement. Okay, it’s hanging onto the basic plotline for dear life, and the stock characters are there – we have Cinderella, of course, and Buttons and Prince Charming. But gone are the Disney, cutesy names for the ‘Ugly Sisters’; instead, we have Fanny and Vajayjay. You can see where this is going now?

May Tether plays Cinderella, and like the show’s title itself, is channelling a certain other Cinderella who also acquired the prefix ‘bad’. The whole show is a parody, and Tether lampoons with affection and with tongue in cheek. Although the script advocates that tongues are destined for rather more unsavoury parts of the anatomy. Yes, it is that sort of show. That is not a dig, however. Neil Hurst and Jodie Prenger’s writing is wild and lewd but is equally sharp, and intelligently plays with words. We are occasionally reminded of the likes of the Two Ronnies, for example, particularly during a very clever soliloquy in which the titles of every well-known musical are strung together to form a witty and breathless anecdote.

Keanna Bloomfield switches between Buttons and Prince Charming, drawing attention to the writers’ neglect in allowing for costume changes. Budgetary constraints and the producers’ limitations and lack of foresight are also frequently shared with the audience. Maybe spread a little too thin, but the comedy is thickened if you are acquainted with the behind-the-scenes machinations of theatre in all its variety. Genres are crossed with gay abandon as the ‘Ugly Sisters’ lead us headlong into the world of Cabaret and Drag. A captivating duo they are the wicked Queens of the night. Veronica Green’s Fanny is deliciously spicy (I never, ever thought I’d be writing that in a review). Matched by Imelda Warren-Green’s pouting, sourpuss Vajayjay (come on now, concentrate!), the self-declared ‘fab-u-lous’ pair are a comic act that draw the biggest laughs. If the show were to be streamed for general release you wouldn’t catch much of what is said due to the number of censoring beeps required.

There is a narrative thread, just in case we can’t keep up, provided by an uncredited, on-screen presence whose deadpan delivery alludes to the show being ‘very very bad’ indeed. Yes – it is ‘bad’ and ‘wicked’ and ‘sick’. But these are all huge compliments if you’re referring to the urban dictionary. It is a very very fun night out. Prepare to be offended and delighted in equal measure. Oh, and be wary of where you sit, unless the idea of wearing a face mask pulled out from Fanny’s undergarments appeals to you. There – that should get you scrolling for the booking page if nothing else.

Tag Archives: Lizzy Connolly

PORN PLAY

★★★★★

Royal Court

PORN PLAY

Royal Court

★★★★★

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