The drama John is as much about the eponymous character’s effort to make a connection as it is about the sex workers he encounters, writes Theresa Smith
AN EXPERIMENTAL run of the play John at the Theatre Arts Admin Collective gave Vulture Productions some valuable feedback about what people wanted to see.
“We want to know more about the sex workers, is what people were saying,” said actor André Lombard who plays the eponymous character.
A further set of workshops fleshed out the story and characters and now they are rehearsing for a run at Artscape’s Arena Theatre, in the middle of this month.
Having seen the initial performances and now watched a bit of the new rehearsals, I was struck by the way the amelioration of the play changes the meaning of the title from simply being the titular character’s name to now also encompassing the concept of “the john”, as in the sex worker’s customer (which was the idea, but it hadn’t worked in the beginning).
In the play, the John character has trouble relating to people, despite being highly intelligent, and he reaches out for a connection through a series of paid encounters with sex workers.
In his head John has a picture of his first love and in his memories – which play out as “dream sequences” in the play – she is still a child. He is trying to find this person and replicate his first sexual encounter, but like real life the reality is not quite playing out how his dreams do.
Not only do they play with the idea of this idealised person who exists only in John’s head, but they also reference the fantasies people construct around sex workers. (They being Lombard, Vulture Productions artistic director, Jeremeo Le Cordeur, and actress Melissa Haiden, who plays three different sex workers in the play)
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“Melissa also brings a nice, new perspective. She makes the three characters stronger,” explained Le Cordeur.
Haiden added that the workshop process also forced them to become clearer about the characters’ interactions “because the characters react to one another and actions happen because they have to”.
The last time she followed a workshop process was when she was working on CA 12-6 in 2011: “It’s a good way to make the characters sit in yourself, especially when you’re playing different characters.”
Though there is now a little less nudity in the production than there was before, the no persons under 16 age restriction still applies.
They have also now incorporated real stories into the performances, thanks to conversations they have had with sex workers and The Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce (Sweat).
Haiden only half-jokes when she explains that the play has changed the way she talks about sex, from a tittilating taboo subject into something normal: “We didn’t want to perpetuate the belief that the women are just sex objects or steretypes.
“Sex is a big part of how you relate to people and the people in the play are the way they are because of sex and how they experience sex.
“It’s not that all women who explore sex are broken or in pain, but obviously there is also the character who is on the street, but we don’t have to feel sorry for her.”
Lombard was inspired to write John because he wanted to write a play about sex workers and was shocked to realise just how little he really understood about the people or the industry: “Hearing it from them in the way they tell it, there’s no room for ‘it’s so shocking’ because ‘this is my life’.”
Talking to various people also taught him that there are very unique stories out there to be told and the workshops helped to figure out which ones would further this particular play.
“It’s about making you aware. Now people would have a reference and hopefully after seeing the play, the next time they see a sex worker they’ll think, ‘I wonder what her story is?’” said Le Cordeur.
• John is at the Artscape Arena Theatre from May 21 to 30. Tickets: R100 from Computicket.