Review of Pornography at 53two, Manchester.
Heading to 53two, Deansgate is busy with people – out for a drink, glued to their phones, rushing for a train. And that’s where Red Brick’s production begins – with characters striding purposefully across the stage, passing by those around them, but never acknowledging their existence. The anonymity of city life, so much unknown.
Written in response to the 7/7 London bombings, which followed on so rapidly from the euphoria over the city’s winning of the race to host the 2012 Olympics, Simon Stephen’s Pornography seems to crave an understanding of what it is to feel alienated, to give in to destructive urges and violent impulses.
Like some sort of scientific experiment – with characters assigned numbers like lab rats – Stephens’ writing peers beneath rocks, scratches away surfaces and stares into darkness.
Six stories flow through the play, episodic but linked to a series of bigger events – the Live 8 concerts, the Olympics 2012 announcement, and then the morning and evening of 7 July 2005.
Staging is stripped back and utilitarian – plain shelves and simple framed seating. Two video screens stream constantly changing imagery throughout most of the production. News footage from the time may help set context for those not familiar with the events referenced, and live close-ups of performances create an added layer of forensic scrutiny – but for a lot of the time, my attention was elsewhere, and all those coloured pixels just dissolved into an ever-present digital glow.
In fairness, I was more invested in the performances, and what was being said. Director Oliver Hurst maintains a clear-eyed focus on Stephens’ writing – showcasing the piece’s strengths to such an extent that you wonder why this is the first professional UK production since 2009.
An unsettling vision of London is created – somewhere populated by abandoned spaces, haunted by ghosts, and remade by the destructive power of fire and air raids. “People disappear here in ways they don’t in other cities”.
Characters are wrestling with a variety of dilemmas, a few are already aflame with emotion, others are on slow burn. There is loneliness, emptiness, anger and disgust – and in some instances, a desperate desire to connect, at whatever cost.
Sound design is deployed lightly, often with nothing but the quiet hum of electrical equipment to accompany a character’s monologue – their voices calling out into a void of near silence. It’s as eerily effective as it is exposing.
There’s nowhere to hide, and currently some of the acting feels underpowered and indistinct – however Hurst’s production benefits from a clutch of extraordinary performances.
Matthew Heywood is an increasingly unnerving presence – observing the inadequacies of others from beneath his polite facade and channelling a formidable fury into carefully planned mayhem. Yet, when the mask slips, to reveal what is bottled up and packed tight inside, it’s clear that Heywood could go off at any moment.
Mentally fraying at the edges, and physically weak, Isabel Ford’s lonely widow hankers to make her mark before it is too late – to be seen, noticed. Crackling with a fiery energy – she finds herself drawn instead into a poisonous online world and views others with jaded weariness. Bitter disappointment and sour words often collapse into hazy confusion.
There’s a similar blend of venom and vulnerability within Isaac Radmore’s teenage schoolboy. Bullied, obsessed with his female teacher, and spouting extremist views – he hurtles towards self-destruction. Yet, as quickly as Radmore can ignite with righteous indignation, his angry young man will dissolve into the outline of a damaged child.
Stephens’ play is uncompromising, even moments of hope feel fleeting and fragile. It’s a brave choice, and Hurst crafts a powerful production – generating a chill that seeps into you, and with performances that are difficult to shake off.
Performance seen on 27 September 2023.
Pornography runs at 53two from 26 September to 30 September 2023.
Images by Liam Steers.
Circles & Stalls 