By Simon Stephens

National Institute of Dramatic Art, Actor’s Studio 2015

On July 6, 2005 at 12:49pm it was announced that London had just won the bid to host the 2012 Olympics. The city ignited in feverous celebration and that evening a community united. The next morning London spiraled from elation to shock at the news that Britain’s first suicide bombers had struck at the heart of the capital.

Written in response to the Tube bombings Simon Stephens play transcends the specific events of July 7, 2005 and investigates more broadly the fabric of a culture pushing it’s members to commit mass murder.

Set in the days leading up to the bombings a fascinating character study emerges of the disenfranchised and isolated in a world where genuine communication is increasingly rare and where honest vulnerability is potentially lethal.

While there are several minor sexual references in Pornography this is not a play about sex or porn. The title refers to a more pervasive cultural objectification of the other as somehow alien, up for violent dissection. Pornography is seen as a symbolic symptom of our disaffection, our isolation from others and capacity to erase the humanity of those around us, treating other people as if they were abstracts, rather than flesh and blood human beings.