Eight Gigabytes Of Hardcore Pornography
In the age of ‘too much information’ it was only a matter of time until someone skewered the often stark contrast between our public and private selves. Declan Greene’s play examines the “pervasive influence of readily available pornography on our cultural sexual imagination,” he says. Two, average, middle-aged individuals, like the vast majority of us, find themselves a long way off from the fantasy figures they see online.
With each of these individuals looking to the online realm for a little something more out of life, Greene aims to examine the “conflict between a digital pornographic fantasy and reality and how that vagueness bleeds into online dating.”
If you’ve ever fudged the facts on your OkCupid profile, or touched up photos before tagging yourself on Facebook, take note: Greene warns that, while you may not like the characters onstage, you will certainly recognise them.
“What the audience is getting,” he says, “is their…truthful, ugly, base, embarrassing sides… almost the opposite to what the internet does – project the self we want people to see.”
Acknowledging that there could be a fair amount of bleakness construed by audiences from the subject matter, Greene sees it differently.
“It is a comedy,” he says, “and it is important to me that the play is funny. It’s important that we can laugh at how bleak the world is sometimes.” (SW)
May 2-Jun 14, SBW Stables, 10 Nimrod St, Kings Cross, $32-49, (02) 9361 3817, griffintheatre.com.au
BY SIRI WILLIAMS
