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Sex Workers Opera
Oval House Theatre
52-54 Kennington Oval
London SE11
The Sex Worker’s Opera was originally devised in 2014 and has previously been staged at the Courtyard, the Arcola and the Pleasance Theatre. Its restaging here, at the Ovalhouse, is a testament to its vital message.
What you get in this production isn’t slick, polished performance. But it’s not meant to be. Rather, this is a powerful piece of agit-prop theatre, which demands its audience listen to the voices of sex workers and to a politics rooted in their personal experience.
The piece is performed by a mixture of sex workers and professional actors and the show directly draws on the lived experiences of those workers, as well as augmenting their experiences with others from around the world.
The agit-prop structure of the piece means it is performed in a mix of styles. So while, the production loosely follows Simone and Natalie, sisters who’ve fallen out over one’s sex work, it also blends drama, song, testimony, movement and pole dancing.
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