Preview: Pornography

What could be more“stylized, relevant, and thought-provoking” than standard pornography? Mermaid’s Pornography. Christian Grey came to St. Andrews. Now it’s SHAG week. The timing of the play, going up this weekend, could not be more relevant.

Jo Bowman, producer Laura Antone, and set designer Sigrid Jorgensen gave me the pleasure of answering some of my questions about the upcoming performances.

Note: Laura and Sigrid were hard at work on a beautiful map of the Tube (spoiler alert) whilst I was asking these questions, so the majority of answers come from Jo (though there was enthusiastic confirmation and occasional chiming in from her team mates). Jo was kind enough to take a break from the strenuous light-rigging process to chat.

Q: So…the title – Pornography – is pretty attention grabbing. Could you tell me how it relates to the play itself or would that be giving away too much?

Jo: Well there are two reasons. The first is that it is a gratuitous title to bring to an audience. The second is that the title reflects on how we as a species watch each other dispassionately… get off on each other’s pain. The overall disconnection we have from one another.

Q: What made y’all choose this play? How did it all come together?

Jo: I read the play a couple of years ago around my last year of high school. I thought in terms of subject matter it was incredibly interesting. I also thought that there was a lot of freedom in terms of what you can do with the material. There are no stage directions written in, which gives the director free reign. It also provided the chance to work one-on-one with actors because a lot of the content is delivered in monologues, which is something I really wanted to do. Also, the writing in general is beautiful and poetic. Additionally, the play strikes a personal note because I remember 7/7 vividly as I live in London. The way the events impacted the city was interesting, especially in contrast to the ramifications of 9/11.

Q: How’s the rehearsal process? Any particularly memorable moments?

Sigrid: Ooooh where to start. (All three laugh.)

Jo: I’d just like to start out by putting out a public thank you to our actors and my other team members. They’re all incredible. We made sure that we discussed and dealt with the heavy stuff up front. We wanted to be sure everyone was comfortable.

The entire process -maybe- should have been more stressful given the limited amount of rehearsal time that we have, but it hasn’t really been because everyone has been so wonderful.  In terms of student theatre being a learning experience, we feel that this production has enabled the actors and production team to practice a lot of new skills like set painting and rigging. The production will be done in the round, which provides a different type of acting experience… It’s more dynamic, more interactive with the audience.

Sigrid: It’s a rare experience for the actors.

Laura: We, as a production team, have had so much fun. It’s been very entertaining working together. During rehearsals there was a good sense of balancing the gravity of the play with the levity of the fun rehearsals.

We are also excited for our set pieces!The setting will be unique to this play.

Jo: We’d also like to emphasize that even though the way the audience is arranged for this particular show is different, health and safety will remain intact and no fire exits will be blocked!

What do you want people to leave with? How do you hope the play will come across?

Jo: Our main goal is to let them look at the events of 2005 in a different light. We also want them to come away feeling they’ve witnessed a different kind of Barron play. We also hope that the play is enjoyable? Not quite the right word but  enjoyable in the sense that it garners an emotional response. Oh and that people have the added bonus of saying that they’ve seen Pornography at uni. It’s a cheap joke, but a good one.

Pornography goes up this weekend at 7:30 on Friday and Saturday at the Barron. More details can be found on the Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/events/650989751680858/?fref=ts). Be sure to grab (or grope) a ticket for what sounds like a unique and exciting play!

Image courtesy of Mermaids and the Pornography team.