Ambika Mod is to star as an academic addicted to violent pornography in a new play at the Royal Court in London. Mod, best known for her screen performances in One Day and This Is Going to Hurt, will take on her highest profile theatre role to date in Porn Play, written by Sophia Chetin-Leuner and directed by Josie Rourke.
Billed as “funny, unsettling and honest”, it opens in November at the Royal Court’s smaller Jerwood Theatre Upstairs. Chetin-Leuner, whose play This Might Not Be It was set in a mental health unit and staged at the Bush last year, said: “Ever since I was a teenager, going to see plays at the Royal Court has shaped my ideals and purpose of who I want to be as a writer – so it’s a terrifying privilege to have Porn Play debuting here.” The play was shortlisted for Soho theatre’s Verity Bargate award in 2022. Chetin-Leuner said she began writing it to explore the effects of pornography on women but that it has “evolved into something much more delicate and intricate over the years”.
