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

★★★★★

“brilliant, vital and fresh”

As an art form theatre is rarely truly frightening. Often a show will be disquieting, or sinister, but as King Troll began, I was confronted with the unusual sensation of fear. From the initial shock factor of flashing floodlights, the play unravels into something complex and disconcerting. It is thought provoking and moving and is horror at its best.

Two sisters, Nikita and Riya, are struggling to find enough documentation to ensure Riya’s resident status on ‘the island’. Nikita is the provider, the older sister and the expert on what is needed. She works for a refugee charity. Riya is the lost little sister. The ‘albatross’ around Nikita’s neck. In desperation they contact a reclusive friend of their mother’s, who gives them a magical gift which will change their lives – The ability to build a man, a man who will dote on them, or ‘a fawn’. But as with all magically made creatures, he is more than they could ever predict.

Sonali Bhattacharyya’s script is peculiar and beautifully written. The sisters are hilarious and their bond feels so real. The magic is delightfully sinister and the commentary on migrants’ rights is vital and potent. The idea of creating this white man, who will fawn on the sisters, is the perfect vehicle to demonstrate the injustice of the system. In one moment, The Fawn echoes everything that Nikita says, but he is believed where she was ignored. Marrying the abstract fear of the Home Office’s racist laws and the tangible fear of this Frankenstein’s Monster is a clever and unusual take.

Milli Bhatia’s direction shines in the moments of physicality. One particular moment of violence turns to tenderness in a cleverly crafted exploration of power. Each character is allowed light and shade and their own moment to be the star.

The cast are all phenomenal. Zainab Hasan and Safiyya Ingar carry the story as the two sisters. Both are angry and witty and strong pillars in a play which could feel disjointed. Diyar Bozkurt is heart-breaking as Tahir, Nikita’s undocumented friend, and his is the true heart of this play. However, the scene stealers are Ayesha Dharker and Dominic Holmes. Dharker bursts from the stage with comic and sinister oddness, both as the slick and casually cruel landlord and the wide-eyed recluse. Holmes’ eerie performance shines in his uncanny physicality as The Fawn, but he also deftly handles more naturalistic moments.

Rajha Shakiry’s set knits the different story strands together. Brutalist concrete columns connect barbed wire and piles of earth and sand, in the background of a cosy sitting room. The while tiled floor dirties with blood and mud, as these worlds collapse into one another.

XANA’s sound design complements the eerie atmosphere with voiceover and timely music. Elliot Griggs’ lighting is startling and disquieting, often flashing like a jarring floodlight, or providing the soft lamplight of the sisters’ flat.

This play will divide audiences, not down political lines but lines of weirdness. However, for many (myself included) it is brilliant, vital and fresh.

Tag Archives: Yimei Zhao

PORN PLAY

★★★★★

Royal Court

PORN PLAY

Royal Court

★★★★★

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