The cast of Naomi Westerman’s new play Puppy at the King’s Head Theatre has been announced including Ian Hallard (Doctor Who and Sherlock, BBC). Puppy follows two young women who meet late one night in a car park, and immediately fall in love whilst dogging. Exploring the boundaries of their sexualities, they start their own feminist porn company, but when new proposed legislation intent on outlawing female pleasure is introduced, the valiant lovers become fighters in a battle for their rights. Puppy is an outrageous, sex-positive, female-centric comedy, about queerness, feminist porn, protest, the patriarchy, and Nick Clegg.
The cast is led by Ashling O’Shea, known for her role as Nadira Valli in Hollyoaks (Channel 4) as Jaz, a naive and romantic young woman who works as a bookkeeper. Amy Revelle (When Women Wee, Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Soho Theatre 2011, Jamie Johnson FC, CBBC), will portray Jaz’s romantic interest, Maya, a post graduate student and porn actor, who launches her own ethical feminist adult entertainment company.
The supporting cast includes Ian Hallard (Great Britain, National Theatre 2014, The Boys in the Band, Park Theatre 2016 and Vaudeville Theatre 2017, Doctor Who and Sherlock, BBC), Ed Larkin (Tom Fletcher’s The Creakers, 2024, The Little Big Things, @sohoplace 2023) and Maria Austin (Mercy, Apple TV, The Reverend and Mrs Simpson, Sky) as an ensemble of friends who are members of their local dogging society.
Playwright Naomi Westerman said, “Puppy came out of the combination of my desire to create more female-led queer stories, and my artistic practice of using character-driven comedy to explore socio-political issues. Wrapping a trenchant critique of late-stage capitalism porn industry and the exploitation of female sexuality and sexual liberation within a rom-com about dogging is no easy task, but putting loads of filthy puns in seems to be making it easier.
This is the only play you’ll ever see that references Žižek and Xiao Lu, but also has a porn spoof of Agatha Christie called The Muff Trap, and I’m extremely proud of that. But above all else, love: for too long, LGBTQ+ theatre has been dominated by plays about white gay cis-men, and too often narratives of pain and rejection. I’m thrilled to be selected as part of Relish’s season of work championing untold queer voices and challenging the hegemony of trauma narratives. Puppy celebrates queer joy and queer love, two things we all need to embrace more.”
Naomi Westerman is a playwright, screenwriter, author, and a former anthropologist. Her work has been widely staged at numerous theatres across London and the UK, as well as productions in the USA, Canada, Chile, Germany, and other countries. Her first play Tortoise debuted at the New Wolsey Theatre before transferring to the Arcola Theatre and was also part of a showcase at the Criterion Theatre in the West End. She was then selected to be part of Graeae Theatre Company's Write to Play training programme for disabled writers, chosen by James Graham OBE to co-write the collaboratively written stage play Sketching with him, and awarded the Wapping Arts Residency in Berlin. She is the recipient of the Royal Society of Literature Award and the In Good Co Mid-Career Commission Award and has also won a VAULT Origin Award and a Michael Grandage Futures Bursary. Her lesbian dystopian drama Brennschluss (a commission from Graeae) was a finalist in the Theatre Uncut Political Playwriting Award.
Founded in 2015, Relish Theatre is one of London’s premier organisations for sustainable new writing theatre productions. Relish Theatre consistently champions the best new writing from LGBTQ+ playwrights. Their works reflects the authentic experience of LGBTQ+ lives, tackles real-world issues and topics, and celebrates the joy, laughter and love of the community. They provide a platform for the most exciting, creative and talented early-career artists, from all over the country, to develop their craft and share their work with others. They strive to ensure their work reaches new audiences, who can engage and relate to their stories. Relish Theatre creates their work sustainably, and they push the conversation of environmental theatre-making as far and as hard as they can.
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