VIDEO: THE TEMPEST Performed Outdoors By Nude All-Woman Cast In Central Park (NSFW)

You may know that New York City law permits women to be topless any place where men are granted the same right, but did you know that full public nudity is permitted when determined to be in the cause of artistic expression?

That law was put to the test with two free performances of Shakespeare's THE TEMPEST, performed in the nude by an all-woman cast.

The production was presented by The Outdoor Co-ed Topless Pulp Fiction Appreciation Society (coedtoplesspulpfiction.wordpress.com), a book club that arranges gatherings for members to enjoy sunny days reading while topless in public parks.

Performances took place Thursday, May 19th at 5:30pm and Friday, May 20th at 2pm at Central Park's Summit Rock. This was the group's first time staging a theatrical venture.

Why THE TEMPEST? The group's co-founder, who goes by "Alethea Andrews," explains to Jezebel, "First, several of us just love the play - it contains some of Shakespeare's most beautiful writing, it's fanciful and magical, the characters are wonderful. Second, it's set entirely outdoors, which makes it a natural choice for the Central Park setting: from the top, Summit Rock almost looks like an isolated island. But most important of all, the text itself contains some important notions about propriety and impropriety, and about the relationship between what we think of as 'civilized' behavior and what we think of as the state of nature, all of which gives us a foundation to explore the theme of body freedom and openness."

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The video contains photographs of the production, with pixilation blurring some body parts.