Recently I had the pleasure Cameryn Moore’s two plays Phone Whore and Slut (r)evolution. Since I saw them both in one night I’m combining them into one post. I first blogged about Phone Whore here.
Phone Whore
I was particularly excited to see Phone Whore. A play all about what I do-yay! The audience was small and the stage was sparse. I don’t know if this is the case in all of Moore’s performances but she performed so close to us that I felt like I could reach out and grab the phone from her. This gave an immediate intimacy to the performance.
The play starts with the phone ringing and Moore offstage. She speeds in, grabs the phone and talks to the dispatcher. And then bam-the audience is experiencing her side of of phone sex call. After the phone call Moore breaks the fourth wall and talks directly to the audience. This gave the whole play such strength. Since sex work is something that’s “hidden” to many people this dialog made a connection with the viewers.
Phone Whore’s tag line is “a one-act play with frequent interruptions”. And there are lots of interruptions. She’ll talk for a bit, sometimes about herself, the callers, sex work in general, and then the phone will ring and she’ll go on a call. This is an accurate portrayal of the work. My friends are used to me talking to them on the phone and then suddenly saying “I gotta go” when a call comes in.
Moore talks about her callers with compassion. She may poke fun at some of her clients but she also cares about them. She sees herself as an outlet where men can express their hidden desires in a judgement free space. I totally relate to that.
In one instance Moore is working on an art project. Later after the show my friend Kelli remarked, “how many of us do sex work to fund our art”? How true. So many of my sex worker friends, including myself, are artists.
There were a few surprises with how Moore did her calls. She didn’t use a headset. I started off without one but that quickly changed. I find a headset essential to doing calls. While she’s working on an art project her phone rings. She stops working on the project and sits in her work chair to do the call. I wasn’t expecting that. I love working on art while on calls; it helps me relax and focus on the fantasy. Another time she is making a snack and the phone rings. While talking to the client she looks longingly at her quickly getting cold food. Normally I don’t eat on calls but if I’m hungry I utilize my mute button and eat anyway. (I blogged about eating on calls here.)
The play was funny. As a PSO myself I laughed hard at some of her sex work jokes. She refers to the abundance of BBC calls-big black cocks. I often joke if I was back in college I’d write my thesis on the middle-aged, married, heterosexual male’s obsession with big black cocks.
As the phone rang one time Moore turned to the audience and says “you’re going to wish I would have signed off instead” before starting the call. I got excited. We were going to get a sick roller coaster ride of a call.
It turned out to be an incest call. At the time I felt disappointed. Incest? That’s easy. I can do complex lace knitting while doing an incest fantasy. But after the play my friend Kelli put it into perspective by commenting “wow that incest call was really hard to listen to”. As soon as she said that I appreciated that part in the play. For most people that scene is probably hard to sit through. I know a few PSOs that refuse to do that fantasy. I’ve been doing phone sex for nine years now-of course it was easy for me to hear that.
After the play Moore held a Q&A with the audience. This was a great idea. It gave non sex workers to engage with her. I’m sure many people haven’t knowingly talked with a sex worker. Remember we walk amongst you. ; ) The Q&A increased the intimacy of the performance and stirred up an interesting dialog.
Slut (r)evolution
After an intermission Moore performed Slut (r)evolution. I’m not a slut myself but I certainly am supportive of my slut friends. If that’s your kink I say go for it! So I went into this play with curiosity. What would her perspective be like?
The play’s tag line is “no one get there overnight”. Indeed the play shows her evolving into the proud slut that Moore is today. She again breaks the fourth wall and talks directly to the audience. This works well for one person plays I think. Again, it created an intimacy between performer and audience.
Moore switches up the timeline. The first scene is her as a college aged woman. A scene of her as a girl appears in the middle of the play. Like Phone Whore, Slut (r)evolution shows Moore having conversations with unseen companions and then addressing the audience. This didn’t work as well for the play I thought. There is a scene where she is playing with a fellow kinkster at a play party and another where at Burning Man that I felt would have been enhanced with another actor. The scene with the white sheet portrays her as a young girl finding an erotic passage in a book. That scene felt the strongest to me.
Again there were several moments that were laugh out loud funny. Moore is a funny person. The ending surprised me. It wasn’t the context per se-it’s more that I didn’t realize it was the last bit until it ended. Unfortunately she didn’t do a Q&A after this play. That was a disappointment. I so enjoyed the one for Phone Whore that I was hoping for a repeat for Slut (r)evolution.
If Cameryn Moore is visiting your town I recommend seeing her. You can check out her travel schedule here.
Posted by Vixen as Reviews, Sex Workers at 9:07 PM CST