03/08/24

Underbelly (Belly Button), Cowgate, Edinburgh

Actor Megan Prescott – most famous for her role in Skins – opens up a compelling discourse in this excoriating monologue about how sex sells and is sold. Drawn from a mixture of her own experiences and those she’s observed, Really Good Exposure is a challenging and thought-provoking play – fittingly funded by Prescott’s OnlyFans.

Molly Thomas (Prescott) is fast approaching thirty. A former child star, she’s been encouraged to sell sex throughout her acting career, notably as an adolescent in popular TV drama, Meat. But now she’s no longer a teenager, and it turns out selling sex on her own terms – as a stripper or in porn – is way less socially acceptable than being controlled by ‘the industry’. 

Prescott is an accomplished performer. She tantalises and reels us in before skewering our internal biases and forcing us to think. For most of the running time, she is clad only in a sparkling bikini. This is disturbing in the flashbacks – when she’s eleven years old, practising her competition dance, or sixteen, worried about her first intimate scene for Meat – but empowering when she’s older and finally operating on her own terms. 

As a Gen X feminist, I’m forced to confront my own prejudices. I’ve never been one to demonise sex workers – I believe in a sisterhood that supports all women. But I’ve certainly been guilty of seeing sex workers as victims or as unwitting conduits for misogynist violence. Prescott’s polemic reveals the glaring holes in this logic. Her own experience is that she has more agency and makes more money in porn than she ever did in the mainstream. This is perfectly illustrated by the juxtaposition of two scenes: one featuring full-frontal nudity, where Molly is forced to strip naked to prove she really wants a part in an indie film; the other an exuberant lap dance performed in a strip club. 

As Molly points out, of course there are issues within the porn industry but, “We didn’t ban acting after #MeToo.” 

A fascinating insight into what it costs to be a woman in the spotlight, Really Good Exposure is a must-see at this year’s Fringe.

4.7 stars

Susan Singfield