NSFW: A Devised Digital Theatre Show Created in Lockdown
For 12 weeks from January 2021, during the National Lockdown in the UK - we collaborated with 10 sex workers - to devise a full length digital show over Zoom. We met with participants based all over the world for 2 hours a week, to create a show representative of sex worker experiences. We fundraised for the project, also selling tickets and offered each participant a fee for their involvement. The project was 80% led by artists with lived experience of sex work, and then worked with a couple of creative professionals outside of the industry to deliver the project.
This project was truly DIY theatre and we pulled resources from within the sex work community. Once the COVID 19 restrictions were lifted we met up in person to film the work we developed online, and co-ordinated filming with those outside of the UK. Filming locations included a strip club, a lake in Berlin, a dungeon, a bar in Dalston, and participants' homes.
The work explored queer dating as a sex worker, stigma, how sex workers are portrayed in the media, the similarities between sex work and professional acting, abusive relationships and the power and solidarity of the sex work community. Forms explored were scenes, monologues, spoken word poems, experimental film and performance art, and music. The work has gone on to be screened by Mondo Nights, and is due to be screened at a film festival this year which is TBA.