Turning taboo into theatre: Keelan Armstrong on PORN | Midsumma Festival | Theatre Works

Turn off the lights and brace yourself. PORN, directed by Keelan Armstrong, takes audiences on a provocative, queer-led journey into one of society’s most taboo industries. Through a series of monologues, the play considers how pornography shapes desire, identity, and shame, all while exploring the humour, awkwardness, and unexpected truths that come with navigating a world where both queer lives and adult content are often treated as forbidden.

For Armstrong, this exploration is deeply personal, moulded by his own experiences growing up queer. "I grew up in a weird era for queer kids, where no one would commit a hate crime against you, but at the same time no one acknowledged the existence of queer people. So I turned to pornography to basically show me what a queer relationship could look like. And I think many young queer people do this in the hope to understand themselves and their queer identity more," he explains.

"This play really highlights queer shame. My mother once asked me what queer shame is like and I responded with it's like watching porn. It feels good, you know you shouldn’t be doing it, and you are terrified someone is going to find you doing it. Looking at porn is perceived as a shameful act and this work explores what it is to cast off that shame."

Armstrong’s approach to said industry in PORN is guided by stories drawn from friends, family, and the queer community, with a focus on moments that are rarely spoken about due to shame or stigma. "I focused on instances surrounding porn that I have never heard before. I wanted audiences to see what porn can do for people for better or worse," he tells me.

"It's very clear after researching this topic that I couldn’t possibly cover it all. One scene examines kinks and fetishes, and I couldn’t even begin to scratch the surface of that. I thought talking about fisting and BDSM was going to be scandalous, when in fact that is pretty vanilla. People are turned on by a range of thing: from car crashes, to cartoon characters spinning around rapidly, to inflating balloons inside their stomach. Truly if it exists there is a kink or fetish of it."


As Director, he has carefully shaped the tone of PORN by balancing humour and taboo, mulling over how the work can remain engaging and flirtatious without tipping into exploitation. "Because this play is episodic, each scene is a different experience, adventure, and view on porn," Armstrong says. "Some are funny and playful while others lean further into the serious and dark, but all come from a place of truth. And it's that truth that makes the moments of comedy or tragedy feel real. We are never laughing or judging the characters themselves but at the situation they are in."

He is interested in the conversations and reflections the audience may carry with them after seeing PORN, particularly how the work might linger beyond the performance and prompt discussion, self-examination, or shifts in perspective. "I hope this play allows people to have a conversation about this extremely taboo topic. We should be talking about porn, one-third of people watch it and the average age people start watching it in Australia is 12. So we need to begin these conversations, because porn is not going anywhere. And only when we open up a dialogue are we able to create a healthy relationship with it," Armstrong says.

"A reflection I hope audiences have is on self-expression over shame. This is a celebration of reality and showing how it can be more beautiful than fantasy. At its heart, PORN is about embracing the removal of shame that has been forced onto all of us. Whether that is queer or sexual shame, this story illustrates how we don’t need to be bound to it."

MIDSUMMA MINUTE – QUICKFIRE FIVE

1. A song I could listen to on repeat forever is "Timebomb" by Kylie Minogue.
2. One object I can’t live without backstage is a water bottle because without water you are dead. 
3. My favourite word is cliterally, because I started saying it as a joke and now it's ingrained in my vocabulary and I think people need to stop being afraid of the female body.
4. Something unexpected that brings me joy is my monstera deliciosa because I can forget about that diva and then give her a little bit of water and she is still thriving, and I think that's pretty magical.  
5. If I could live one day as someone else, it would be Johnny Sins because I wanna be an astronaut, doctor, teacher, firefighter and plumber all in one day.

SHOW DETAILS

Venue: Theatre Works: Explosive Factory, 67 Inkerman St, St Kilda
Season: 27 - 31 Jan | 7pm
Duration: 60 minutes
Tickets: $38 Full | $30 Conc
Bookings: Midsumma Festival

Image credit: Tom Noble