Puppy

King's Head Theatre

Playing until 27th April 2025

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Photo credit: Steve Gregson

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Having met up at a dogging group after earlier interactions, Jaz (Ashling O’Shea) and Maya’s (Amy Revelle) relationship quickly blossomed. Maya shared she has a side job as a porn actor and suffers from the anxiety of having to keep on breaking ever more extreme and innovative grounds in order to remain relevant in the industry. Supporting Maya to manage her career under her own terms, and to provide safety and options for other women in the industry, Jaz co-creates a new porn studio with Maya and face the other factors that both rock the company and their relationship.

Puppy explores the nature of a dogging community, the openness and intricacies of the relationship of the couples in a dogging group, and a legislation that impacts the porn industry. The dogging group members engage in amorous activities with each, at the same time exposing their most vulnerable selves, providing safety and understanding to each other in a closely knit community. Naomi Westerman’s script is bold, articulate and gives individual character the room to tell their own stories, while Kayla Feldman’s direction and Christina Fulcher’s choreographed interactions are fun and fluid, creating ample humour with sometimes acrobatic sexual positions.

The script itself is stimulating and challenges the audience to be openminded and consider the wider impact of one’s own preconceptions, government policies and how one copes with change. It shows the change in Jaz and Maya’s relationship, while Jaz begins to understand her own interests in directing, she also gets to know the actors and is becoming closer to the dogging group. Maya on the hand, becomes focused on her success and becomes more detached from the group and the women she created the company to support.

When I say Jaz and Maya’s relationship quickly blossomed, I meant that. Although the two characters describe what attracted them to each other in the first place, it felt more like puppy love, and appears to be little beyond surface infatuation. However, this is likely not the case given they were determined to enter a business partnership together and even after establishing her own career, Jaz is willing to return to help Maya. Although all elements in this shifting dynamic are shown, the changes feel sudden and abrupt, particularly in relation to Jaz and Maya’s characters. The relationship breakdown feels forced, undermining the two characters’ growth. In particular, it would have been helpful to properly build up Jaz’s interests in directing before she leaves the company and take on a new challenge.

The introduction of the Audiovisual Media Services Regulation 2014, a real-life legislation, banned a number of sexual acts in porn, forcing Maya to take a stand as her company faces closure. Westerman’s script brings the positivity of the dogging community in full force, Richard (Ian Habbard) and Susan (Tia Dunn), members of the dogging group, even roped in their backbench MP son to fight on behalf of Maya. This political fight is perhaps the most fleshed out aspect of this play, providing the context, build up and a platform to rally the troop together to fight for a common cause.

Richard and Susan, and Sandra (Maria Austin) and Dave (Ed Larkin) are two couples from the dogging group. Hallard and Dunn showcase incredible joy engaging in these sexual acts and the pleasure that could be achieved when you embrace the nature of dogging fully. Larkin was given the opportunity to tell Dave’s side gig as an erotic murder mystery writer, jam packed with hilarious parody titles of well-known novels, garnering some of the loudest cheers and laughs in this production.

Despite the fact that this story is coherent, communicates some vital messages, there is a huge amount of material packed into this single act story, with some of the relationship element of the plot to gagging for air. While the story would benefit from further refinement, this puppy is just getting started. Don’t expect baby-doll eyes, this pup is as naughty as they come.

Creatives

Writer: Naomi Westerman

Director: Kayla Feldman

Visual Designer: Rosin Jenner

Lighting Designer: Catja

Sound Designer: Jamie Lu

Intimacy Director: Christina Fulcher

Producer: Morag Davies for Relish Theatre

Associate Producer: Ben Quashie

Assistant Producer: Ella Dale