Playwright: Sean Graney
At: The Side Project Theatre, 1439 W. Jarvis
Phone: ( 773 ) 973-2150; $18-$20
Runs through: June 11
BY RICK REED
It's a shame that The Side Project had to christen its new home with a project like Sean Graney's Porno. The title might suggest something delightfully naughty or titillatingly raunchy. Porno is neither. Instead, it's exhibit A for a talented young director who needs to be knocked down a peg or two, or to have his bottom spanked. Porno is a self-indulgent, pretentious mess with zero theatrical merit ( other than the very good performances, which are completely wasted in this atrocious audience assault ) . Stay far away.
Why the strong reaction? For one, I've never left a theater and felt the need to go for a walk alone. ( Porno left me feeling physically ill; it left my theater-mates that night in much the same way; one of them, a former admirer of Graney's, vowed to never see his work again. ) Porno is, I think, about the clash of commerce and culture in theater. To support his thesis, Graney has written a show about a porno being made of a classic, Dido at Carthage, and the problems resulting from a project too highbrow for the medium to begin with and from an interfering 'backer.'
Graney could have made this amusing and smart. Instead, he opted to go for seeing how far he could push the envelope ( making one wonder if recent praise for his work has resulted in an overgrown ego inflation that's out of touch with not only audiences, but reality ) . I'm not a prude ( and I number among my favorites directors like John Waters, Tobe Hooper and Pier Paolo Pasolini ) . However, unlike those directors, who understand why their work wallows in gore and excrement, Graney does not. The directors I mentioned are known for the shock value of their work; they are also known for either a love of humanity that's apparent if you look beneath the gross-out veneer, a free admission that all they're after is a cheap thrill, or a statement of something so important that they have to phrase it in a shocking, can't-look-away manner. Graney's thesis doesn't support his foisting upon his audience two disgusting depictions of anal rape ( one on a woman who pleads that she has 'problems down there' and another on a man who is raped with a jagged blade ) .
If Graney was saying something important or if he was simply honest about his desire to shock, I could maybe condone this ( although I would still wish I hadn't been forced to sit through it ) , but Porno seems to exist only to shout out: 'Look at me! Look at how outrageous I can be!'
Many more outings like this one and Graney may find no one is looking his way. I have sung his praises—deservedly—in many past reviews, but I have seldom seen a talent sink lower than with this play. It's vile. It's pointless. My advice: Ignore this show much as you ignored the class clown displaying a mouthful of chewed-up food after announcing, 'Train wreck.'