Dogging, a female-led porn film business and more dogging. The group who regularly meet up one night a week in Puppy treat the dogging session in the same light as the yoga and amateur theatre group meetings they attend on other evenings. Just an extension of their busy social lives and why not sex is nothing to shy away from!

There are a few comedy one-liners dotted throughout the play. Although on the whole it felt repetitive and the characters didn’t convince me that they were strong enough to lead a business in the porn industry. Jaz (Ashling O’Shea) and Maya (Amy Revelle) meet at a dogging site near the Princess of Wales memorial with a group who meet regularly.

However, even the strongest suspension of disbelief doesn’t stretch to believe that any bodily fluids ever exchanged as the entire cast are always fully clothed never so much as a dishevelled shirt in sight.

Maya sets up a feminist-led porn company allowing the females to have more control over what they do and don’t want to perform in front of the cameras. However, her business comes under threat as the laws surrounding the sex industry threaten to put her out of business.

Nick Clegg makes an appearance towards the end, well in the form of a voice recording during a demonstration that has been organised and led by Maya against the government’s law against the streaming of porn. However, Maya has to fight to get an interview with the “gutter press” who bypasses her in the beginning and isn’t particularly interested in what she has to say. Some factual elements of this play deserve more explanation but it all gets slightly jumbled along the way and fell flat for me.

For more information about Puppy and future productions at The King’s Head Theatre please use the link below.

Two Stars.

Photo credit Steve Gregson.

https://kingsheadtheatre.com/

Ashling O’Shea – Jaz
Amy Revelle – Maya
Ian Hallard – Richard
Tia Dunn – Susan
Maria Austin – Sandra
Ed Larkin – Dave

Written by Naomi Westerman
Directed by Kayla Feldman
Intimacy Director – Christina Fulcher
Visual Design – Roisin Jenner
Lighting Design – Catja Hamilton
Sound Design – Jamie Lu
Casting Director – Matt Sheppard