{"id":181343,"date":"2025-11-15T02:40:21","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T02:40:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/181343\/"},"modified":"2025-11-15T02:40:21","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T02:40:21","slug":"one-day-star-ambika-mod-puts-on-an-astonishing-performance-in-porn-play-as-reviewed-by-georgina-brown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/181343\/","title":{"rendered":"One Day star Ambika Mod puts on an\u00a0astonishing performance in Porn Play as reviewed by GEORGINA BROWN"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul class=\"mol-bullets-with-font\">\n<li class=\"class\"><strong>\u00a0Have YOU got a story? Email: tips@dailymail.co.uk<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"author-section byline-plain\">By GEORGINA BROWN FOR THE DAILY MAIL <\/p>\n<p class=\"byline-section\"> Published:  11:49 EST, 14 November 2025   |  Updated:  11:54 EST, 14 November 2025   <\/p>\n<p>                       Porn Play (Royal Court Theatre, London)<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font mol-style-medium\">Verdict: Paradise lost\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-ratings-solid\">Rating:<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Rating (4 STARS)<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Sophia Chitin-Leuner\u2019s unsettling new play about porn is a ground-breaker \u2014 not least because it dares to be funny, as well as deeply disturbing. Even before it begins, the audience are issued with shoe-covers, so as not to leave grubby footprints as we clamber onto the squishy beige banks of seating.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">The intimate space Upstairs at the Royal Court has been transformed, so it resembles the contours of a body, sloping down to an empty oval pit. All very flesh-like; all very female.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">When props \u2014 clothes, laptops, duvets, a medical table and (hilariously) an endless roll of medical paper \u2014 are pulled, like secrets, from crevices and seams, the space becomes a bedroom, a doctor\u2019s room, an office.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">At the centre of director Josie Rourke\u2019s cleverly restrained yet suggestive production is Ambika Mod (best known as sweet, doomed Emma in One Day).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">She plays Ani, a super-articulate academic \u2014 an expert on Milton, author of Paradise Lost \u2014 who is celebrating her latest award with her boyfriend, over a sumptuous Adam and Eve-appropriate pudding of apple pie.<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-b8b9a66028f564de\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/103891103-15292119-image-a-2_1763138436849.jpg\" height=\"951\" width=\"634\" alt=\"Sophia Chitin-Leuner\u00bfs unsettling new play about porn is a ground-breaker \u00bf not least because it dares to be funny, as well as deeply disturbing; pictured\u00a0Ambika Mod\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">Sophia Chitin-Leuner\u2019s unsettling new play about porn is a ground-breaker \u2014 not least because it dares to be funny, as well as deeply disturbing; pictured\u00a0Ambika Mod<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-2741b10db0dadd8b\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/103891099-15292119-image-a-1_1763138433457.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\" alt=\"At the centre of director Josie Rourke\u00bfs cleverly restrained yet suggestive production is One Day's Ambika Mod, who plays Ani, a super-articulate academic\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">At the centre of director Josie Rourke\u2019s cleverly restrained yet suggestive production is One Day&#8217;s Ambika Mod, who plays Ani, a super-articulate academic<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-fe19d8bb0570932e\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/103891235-15292119-image-a-4_1763138566341.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\" alt=\"And so to bed, where Liam (Will Close) complains that she is more interested in pleasuring herself, while looking at violent porn, than she is in him\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">And so to bed, where Liam (Will Close) complains that she is more interested in pleasuring herself, while looking at violent porn, than she is in him<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">And so to bed, where Liam (Will Close) complains that she is more interested in pleasuring herself, while looking at violent porn, than she is in him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">And while she argues that it helps her unwind, requires less \u2018work\u2019 and, moreover \u2018isn\u2019t real\u2019, she knows there\u2019s something wrong. And there is. Because, like a junkie or an alcoholic, what began as a bit of experimental fun has become a compulsive, uncontrollable urge; in spite of the relationships sabotaged \u2014 when she is caught by her dad, and her best friend \u2014 and the damage she has evidently done to herself (physical and psychological).<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Ani can no longer live in the moment. Even in the most public, inappropriate places, she is reaching for her phone, her hand down her trousers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Much worse, she wants to do this stuff \u2014 and have it done to her.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">In a truly horrifying scene, she gets a younger male student to tie her up, blindfold her and \u2018do anything he wants with her\u2019.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">He reaches for his metal bike lock.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Mod\u2019s performance is astonishing. Initially animated, sparkling, open, beautiful, she becomes increasingly haunted, dead behind the eyes and, yes, pathetic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Important, uncomfortable theatre, brilliantly shining light into a very dark place.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Porn Play runs Upstairs at the Royal Court until December 13.<\/p>\n<p>                    Share or comment on this article:<br \/>\n                        One Day star Ambika Mod puts on an\u00a0astonishing performance in Porn Play as reviewed by GEORGINA BROWN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a0Have YOU got a story? Email: tips@dailymail.co.uk By GEORGINA BROWN FOR THE DAILY MAIL Published: 11:49 EST, 14&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181344,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[118,18,117,19,17,438],"class_list":{"0":"post-181343","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-dailymail","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-tvshowbiz"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115551405909929114","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}