Nellie Wight’s Would a Whore Bring Cake is subtitled as A History of Pornography, but this isn’t a show with an academic or lecturing style. Weaving together tales of housemates, dead cats and interesting comfort purchases, this show is at its core the tale of being dared to watch every erotic film in a video store.
There’s something about Nellie’s delivery style that I find uniquely entertaining. Her child-like voice and her tendency to jump into sub-stories bring to mind an excited twelve year old girl recalling the tale of “What I did on holidays”. However, this childish nervous excitement is somehow merged with a slow, dead-pan delivery. I can’t wrap my head around how these two aspects of her delivery manage to co-exist, but it really works well.
The show could benefit from a fair amount of polish. While show story breaks down into some great discreet sections, it’s often unclear as to where the main narrative is going. When jumping between threads, sometimes you can see that train of though that’s been followed, but at others you just have no idea how you got there. Most of the time this wasn’t too jarring, but Nellie would definitely benefit from running her show through a director or some more previews to work the show together into a more coherent whole.
The show ran well short of its advertised time (running about 35 of an advertised 50 minutes). There seemed to be a sense from Nellie that she may have inadvertently skipped over sections over the show – the last few minutes seemed to be a smattering of jokes that she was recalling at the last moment. I don’t see the shortness as a problem however – I think I’d rather see a solid 35 minutes and leave satisfied than have to sit through another 15 minutes of padding material.
Nellie has got something special in her style, and it’s plain to see that she’s got some great shows in her.
For more info and booking details go to Would a Whore Bring Cake? A History of Pornography