Writer: Megan Prescott
Director: Fiona Kingwill
Really Good Exposure candidly and fearlessly juxtaposes the acting profession with sex work in a thoughtful and surprisingly humorous manner. Megan Prescott plays Molly with wit and verve as she navigates the progression from child star to a difficult and failing career as an actor, ultimately leading to a public scandal when she enters the sex work community. But here, unlike the early 2000s, the subject of our ire is the media landscape and not Molly herself.
The show, despite its roots in real stories, weaves a narrative that is always entertaining, even when the subject matter is dark. The satire here is cutting, and that is largely down to the lively and intelligent script that Prescott has written. At times, the theatricality of the piece is lacking, but this is in some part due to the nature of work loosely inspired by one’s own life. At other times, this is because the fourth wall is persistently toyed with, as clear allusions to Love Island, Skins, and the Daily Mail are made. The laughs that these interruptions buy are very much worth any disruption to the believability of the theatrical world created.
Prescott’s Molly is immediately likeable and the torments she suffers as a young woman in the acting industry are heavily sympathetic. Prescott portrays Molly at various ages with nuanced alterations in her movement that instantly make clear how old she is. The behaviour of others in power is never comfortable to watch, but at no point does the piece blame the audience for the culture we all share. As Molly turns to sex work, she begins to regain her early self-assurance. For Molly, and for Prescott, this is about control. Here, on stage, Prescott is in control of the stories she tells, the choices she makes with her body, and the effect it has on the audience.
Rachel Sampley’s projected backdrops provide intelligent links between scenes, framing all events in the structures of a society that shames women who have sex while fetishising young women in pornography. These links create a lens that invites the audience to engage with Prescott’s performance on a sociological level.
Perhaps what is most interesting about Really Good Exposure is the complexity it embraces. The feminists in the piece who are against abusive environments in strip clubs veer into criticising sex workers who are empowered by their work. The requirements for young actors to spend large sums on altering their appearance for roles are marked as problematic, and the audience is prompted to consider this alongside the demands on sex workers who encounter great expenses to continue their careers. Really Good Exposure does not shy away from this and yet still manages to forge ahead with a narrative that does not get bogged down in the weeds of its subject matter.
Runs until 13 September 2025
The Reviews Hub Star Rating
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8
