We Want You to Watch

We Want You to Watch is a 2015 play by Alice Birch developed with the theatre company, RashDash.The play is a feminist critique of pornography. We Want You to Watch premiered at the National Theatre's Temporary Theatre under the direction of Caroline Steinbeis.

We Want You to Watch
Written byAlice Birch and RashDash
Date premiered2015 (2015)
Place premieredTemporary Theatre (Royal National Theatre), London
SubjectPornography

Development

RashDash, a feminist theatre company composed of Helen Goalen and Abbi Greenland,[1] received funding from the West Yorkshire Playhouse to work with a playwright in developing a new work. They brought in Alice Birch to collaborate.[2] We Want You to Watch was commissioned by The National Theatre and supported using public funding from the Arts Council England.[3]

Plot summary

Over the course of the play, two women named Pig and Sissy try to eradicate internet pornography.[4] Pig and Sissy use extreme means to ban pornography and mitigate its harmful effects including kidnapping the Queen to get her to ban pornography and attempting to make an American hacker turn off the internet.[5] Though the play critiques pornography, its characters maintain that it is "pro-sex."[6]

Production history

We Want You to Watch premiered in 2015 at the National Theatre's Temporary Theatre in London.[7] The production was directed by Caroline Steinbeis[8][9] and starred Goalen and Greenland as Pig and Sissy.[10][11] The production also featured Bettrys Jones, Helena Lymbery, Lloyd Everitt, and Adam Charteris.[12]

In 2019, the play was revived by the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School under the direction of Claire O’Reilly.[13] That same year, the University of Greenwich's Bathway Theatre Company performed We Want You to Watch at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.[14]

Critical reception

Reviewing the 2015 National Theatre's production, The Guardian's Michael Billington and The Independent's Paul Taylor both sympathised with the play's intentions, but felt that its uncompromising approach did not allow for a more nuanced critique of pornography.[4][15]

References
  1. Thompson, Jessie (9 September 2016). "RashDash: Dismantling the patriarchy with thought and feeling". Evening Standard. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  2. Hutchinson, Charles (13 October 2015). "RashDash take on the rise in violent and degrading pornography in new play We Want To Watch You". York Press. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  3. Peek, Ian (25 October 2015). "Review - We Want You To Watch". aAh! Magazine. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  4. Billington, Michael (16 June 2015). "We Want You to Watch review – fantasies of a porn-free world". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  5. "We Want You To Watch". Time Out London. 15 June 2015. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  6. Mountford, Fiona (3 July 2015). "We Want You To Watch theatre review: no real characters or narrative". Evening Standard. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  7. "Porn on stage and screen – too hot to handle?". The Week UK. 18 June 2015. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  8. "Would sex be better in a world without pornography?". The Guardian. 11 June 2015. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  9. Perez, Caroline Criado (3 June 2015). "The new National Theatre show tackling internet pornography". The Independent. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  10. Love, Catherine (16 June 2015). "We Want You to Watch, National Theatre". Catherine Love. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  11. Trueman, Matt (15 June 2015). "We Want You To Watch (NT, Temporary Theatre)". WhatsOnStage. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  12. Swain, Marianka (16 June 2015). "We Want You To Watch, National Theatre". theartsdesk.com. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  13. Davidson, Roanna (7 May 2019). "Review: We Want You to Watch, Wardrobe Theatre". Bristol24/7. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  14. "Greenwich students 'want you to watch' in Edinburgh". University of Greenwich. 7 August 2019. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  15. Taylor, Paul (16 June 2015). "We Want You To Watch, National Theatre, review: Extreme look at porn eradication". The Independent. Retrieved 16 November 2022.
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