Writer: Naomi Westerman
Director: Kayla Feldman
The opening scene featuring dogging in the Princess Di Memorial car-park just about sums up Relish Theatre’s vibrant, sex-positive and funny production at London’s King’s Head Theatre.
For a play based around a couple who meet dogging and go on to set up a feminist porn company, Puppy is not overtly explicit. Actors remain fully clothed and exaggeratedly gyrate in suggestive positions atop car seats and large corduroy cushions, and trade jokes and life stories as they do it. It adds to the comedy and mirrors the whole production’s refreshingly no-nonsense, and cliché-free discussions of sex and the spectrum of sexualities.
The dogging location is where Jaz (Hollyoaks’ Aisling O’Shea), an earnest freelance bookkeeper, has stalked her crush Maya (Amy Revelle) to the dogging site. The stalking succeeds and they enter a whirlwind relationship. Maya reveals that she works in porn, to which Jaz nonchalantly replies, ‘We met dogging, I’m not sure why you think that would surprise me’. After lamenting the misogyny and danger of the industry, the couple set up their own company. Violet Lake Productions centres women, the performers, and caters to a sex-positive audience free from the dangers of the male-dominated mainstream industry to take the world by storm with its success.
Perhaps it’s because we don’t see Jaz and Maya past their witty, intimate conversations and eventually their arguments over Maya’s fame that the production drags a bit by the end: especially as the early conversations are sometimes unnecessarily broken by exchanges from the rest of the company, covering erotic French lessons and, ironically, non-inclusive Diversity, Equality and Inclusion sessions. These scenes are funny but don’t serve the plot and make the show longer than it needs to be.
A final punchline about a certain royal joining the dogging group, resulting in a location change as ‘opposite the Princess Di memorial would be a bit insensitive…’ is comical, but again, goes on a tad too long.
However the performances from the whole dogging crew are excellent. Ed Larkin, recognisable from hit West End musical Little Big Things, is engaging as the hilariously earnest erotic fiction author. Tia Dunn and Ian Hallard are equally funny as the posh Richard and Susan, who eventually enlist their Conservative MP son to help fight the government ban on porn and explicit material.
The production results in a mass face-sitting protest against the incoming ban which threatens to shut down the company with impassioned speeches about the importance of sexual freedom (including one from Nick Clegg) and for actors and sex workers who rely on the income is enlightening and important. Despite slight fatigue by the end, it’s a solid finish to this genuine and unique play. It’s impressive how fresh the perspective this production takes.
Runs until 27 April 2025
