EDINBURGH 2023: Natasha Sutton Williams Guest Blog

Natasha Sutton Williams on exploring taboo desires and the need for connection.

It’s important to state upfront that my show Clown Sex is a comedy, and a dark comedy at that. The aim of the show is to entertain, provoke and titillate in equal measure. In this contemporary moment, it feels like a lot of theatre shows have forgotten the importance of entertainment. So much theatre today is didactic, preaching to the converted, telling people what they should think, or rebuking them for what they do think. Clown Sex has the opposite intent. It’s attempting to open up conversations, not close them down. It offers wildly imaginative scenarios as opposed to personal lived experiences, though to be fair, the real-life story in the show is pretty unbelievable! The three stories offered may be unsavoury, unsettling or uncouth, but they are all delivered with a joyous sense of revelling in the filth. The show is like John Waters meets Tales of the Unexpected for a new generation of perverts. 

Clown Sex shines a spotlight on human fragility, illuminating the joys and sorrows of giving in to our innermost desires in a society which judges sexual nonconformity. The deviant yet endearing characters on stage all have one thing in common: they will do almost anything to combat loneliness. And isn’t that what most people are desperate to escape? Most people are terrified of being alone and feeling isolated. That’s why tribalism has taken such a hold in recent years. Many people need the security of being part of a group, and despise the other side for their views without taking the time to explore how and why people have particular thoughts or perspectives on complex social issues. 

Historically, this was the case when it came to sex. People were constricted within their opinions of what sex should be, what it should look like, what it should feel like, and how moral or immoral sex could be. In the last decade the sexuality spectrum has opened up exponentially. To pigeon-hole someone’s sexuality nowadays can be deemed a social faux pas. We certainly have made progress, and people can express their desires more openly knowing that other people likely have similar desires and that they can connect through these urges. The website Fetlife is one example of this. 

Of course, there is still discrimination when it comes to sexual preference, especially outside of the West, and we have only just breached the surface of what it means to navigate the world as a non-binary person. There is still a journey ahead of us, but we have made leaps and bounds for queer rights in the last fifty years. Only through having open debates - where we truly listen to each other’s perspectives - can we change hearts and minds.  

Clown Sex explores various taboo desires through humour and pathos that is threaded throughout the show. There’s a woman who is desperate to have anal sex at whatever the cost, another woman recounts the time she received cunnilingus from a cat in South Africa (true story), and Gary Strange regales us with his first sexual encounter with a kink-positive clown. The content is freaky, funny and at times a little disturbing. But the message of the show is to invite people to lean into their secret desires, and seek out new experiences, even if society deems them to be distasteful. As long as it’s consensual, this play is saying ‘Be free!’ 

Clown Sex is trying to promote not just a liberation of sexual freedom, but a liberation of thought, particularly when it comes to society’s judgements on individuals. You’ll have to come experience the show to see if it delivers.

Clown Sex will be performed at 1.45pm in Pleasance Courtyard (Bunker Two) from 2nd – 27th August (Not 16th, 21st or 28th)

Booking link: https://www.pleasance.co.uk/event/clown-sex

Photo credit: Rowan Spray

Sponsored content

To post a comment, you must register and login.