Business Doing Pleasure explores the insightful and intense accounts of Manchester’s male sex workers. The performance draws from real life accounts- explicit, often funny, and at times touching stories.
In January 2008, actors Chris Gallagher and Sebastian Shaw took to the streets and conducted interviews with Manchester’s working lads in an attempt to gain an insight into their world and hear from them an authentic depiction of life hiding in the shadows of the city…
Chris says - “This has been a massive eye opener for me. People don’t realise the extent of what goes on because they are not made aware of the situation - what I’m hoping to achieve here is to raise more awareness. This project is not political, nor is it about statistics. It’s as simple as this; we’ve met the real lads involved, they’ve shared their experiences with us and all were basically doing is transferring there stories to stage. This piece of theatre won’t change what happens on the streets, but it may just change some people’s ideas of the lads and give people an opportunity to listen to these stories that they may never have heard.”
Sebastian says – “Prior to this project I saw what society sees, the stereotype of a rent boy - a dangerous young man. The lads I’ve met have been real people with real feelings, genuinely nice, with interesting stories to share. Before we started the interviews, I thought it would be really hard to have a conversation, but the first lad I spoke to really surprised me - I didn’t expect him to be so articulate and have such a positive outlook on life. He really inspired me to carry this project on further, even more so when he said he was happy with what we were doing and he was really keen for us to act as his voice and get his story heard.”
Please note: This production contains adult material; strong language and drug references.
