Shopping and Fucking - Review
(SPOILER ALERT!)
Mark Ravenhill’s Shopping and Fucking takes a look at a world where everything can be bought but one that is also disposable. The play is often humorous but also shocking, which is part of its nature as an ‘in-yer-face’ theatre piece. ‘In-yer face theatre’ is an experimental theatrical movement that was first developed in the 90’s which involves shocking audiences with extreme language and images in order to unsettle them. The purpose of this is to try and get audiences to question themselves and the world around them by showing them graphic and normally taboo content on stage in order to provoke a reaction. Ravenhill was central to this movement, and Shopping and Fucking is a perfect example of an ‘in-yer-face” piece. The play follows the four central characters; Robbie, Mark, Lulu and Gary whom Ravenhill named after the members of the popular 90’s boyband Take That and the singer songwriter Lulu who collaborated on the single ‘Relight my Fire’. In the play we see the characters face their own desperate struggles in a consumerist world full of sex, drugs and violence. The characters’ lives have been reduced to transactions, especially Mark the recovering drug addict who’s looking for a physical connection and willing to pay any price.
When the play first opened to mixed reviews in the Royal Court Theatre In London 1996, the title itself was heavily censored, with the promotional material edited to change the name of the play to “Shopping and F******” But despite the quite grotesque and graphic content within the play itself (e.g. the rape of Gary at the end of the play), it didn’t deter audiences from coming to the theatre and if anything it helped it build a cult following. The theatre was filled with young 20-somethings and boasted a strong gay presence, which meant that more people were starting to talk about more taboo topics such as pornography, prostitution, drugs and sexuality.
Despite the fact that times have changed considerably since the play was first written, if the characters existed today their futures would be just as uncertain as they were back in the 90’s and they would still be struggling to find their places in the world, just as young people continue to struggle in today’s society. The taboo themes that are discussed in the play are still seen as taboo today, showing that we still have a way to go before our country becomes more progressive. But despite that, I feel like young people are still able to identify with the play’s characters and themes today, making the play as relevant as ever.










