Just Whores - Review

Once again the company has come up with a production that is not only highly entertaining but also informative. Based on her research with real 'working girls' the author, Anita Sullivan, has developed a play that gives a view of the lives of prostitutes and their reasons for working in a seedy sauna. They are shown as people with problems and feelings and not just whores – an abusive epithet often directed at them.

Irma, the central character, is a university student whose apparent motive for turning to prostitution for a summer job is to pay off her student loan. The play is a retrospective review of her experiences and relationship with the other girls and the clients.

In the main the clients and the girls have a cosy relationship that one feels is not matched in real life where there would be an atmosphere of potential danger. However this cosiness is shattered in one scene that is quite sexually explicit, shocking and is a powerful piece of theatre that owed much to the superb performances of Alex Childs and Martin Nichols. The rest of the cast matched their high standard of acting.

The quality of the production was truly amazing considering that it was realised under Martin's direction in only three weeks due to the cancellation of the scheduled play.

It was a strange co-incidence that on the day I saw the play a morning newspaper had reported that a mother was paying for her daughter's education at a top Public School through her earnings as a prostitute.

Barrie Jerram