By Siddarth Puri
Daily Bruin Reporter
[email protected]
“Whore.” No, this isn’t about the back alleys
of Las Vegas or Sunset and Vine. No insults are being thrown. In
fact, “whore” is one of the twenty-five plays included
in this year’s UCLA TheaterFest, a three-day theatrical event
on campus this weekend.
Directed by and starring Rick Viede, alongside fellow third year
theater students Skye Passmore and Ian Cohen, “Whore”
recounts the lives of a boy and girl who become prostitutes in
modern day New York and fall in love.
“The play deals with prostitution in a way that people
don’t usually deal with it,” Viede said.
“Generally, prostitution has been painted as a debauched
profession, but this play aims to drive home the humanity of it
all.”
The story was inspired by Viede’s conversations and
interactions with escorts and prostitutes from his native land of
Australia. According to Viede, the life of a prostitute was so
interesting and riveting that he wanted to create a play centering
on the truth of their lives.
“The life of a prostitute is so prevalent in every
country, yet no one talks about it in earnest and honesty, that I
wanted to make sure people knew about it,” Viede said.
The characters in the story are not seen as only sex-crazed
maniacs, horny beyond belief, but rather as real human beings
““ humans people encounter in everyday life, who are going
through tumultuous times and need money.
The main character, Tim, an Australian-native, arrives in New
York to go to college, but when monetary plans with his father fall
through, he is forced into the “escort service” to save
up money for college. His female counterpart, Sara, is a savvy girl
without boundaries who comes to New York and eventually is lured
into the world of prostitution by her love for Tim.
The characters go through numerous downward spirals throughout
the play as a result of drug use, bad “tricks,” and a
sick cycle of wasting their money and then having to
“work” even longer than they had planned.
“The characters are funny because they are people you can
imagine talking to while walking down BruinWalk,” said Maryam
Griffin, the assistant director and a first-year political science
student. “They have the same characteristics and
personalities as many people, but just had to deal with different
situations in life.”
The play hopes to educate viewers on the lives of prostitutes
and show that stereotyping them as dirty people is completely
incorrect. In fact, Viede wants audience members walking out of the
play feeling refreshed and educated on how normal people can make
different types of decisions that affect their lives greatly.
With this goal in mind, the play avoids explicitly commending or
condemning prostitution; it does show, however, how people’s
lives are impacted as a result of it.
“It’s a different kind of profession that people
don’t realize is very difficult as well,” Viede said.
“You really put yourself on the line and that’s what I
want to tackle in my play: to show how people survive under very
different conditions.”
Furthermore, by humanizing the “whores” of the show,
Viede wants people to realize the clichés of the general
population’s view of sex and prostitutes. According to
Griffin, as the story unfolds, the audience member can see how the
couple goes through bouts of happiness in living an excessive
lifestyle as well as misery as they realize this lifestyle
isn’t at all what they wanted.
“I’ve known a few people who have had to become
escorts to earn money to support themselves,” said Derek
Jandu, a first-year world arts and culture student.
“It’s sad to think about what people have to go through
and that all you can do is sit there and watch them.”
The play recounts everything from scandalous sex scenes, drug
scenes and even intense romantic scenes. The characters themselves
go through transformations, learning about each other and what it
takes to build a successful relationship founded on the teetering
hand of prostitution.
“It’s definitely an interesting take on something
that is not often talked about,” Viede said. “We tried
to dig deep and do more than be titillating, but don’t worry,
there’s plenty of titillation in there for
everyone.”
THEATER: “Whore” is playing this
Saturday at McGowan Hall 1340 and Sunday at McGowan Hall 1330.
Admission is free.