Review: ARE YOU WATCHING?, Royal Court

Clad in pastel pyjamas and lounging on bunkbeds, two preteen girls discuss the repeated drugging and rape of Gisèle Pelicot. Their tone is not the sobering one of a news reporter, or even the hushed horror of one learning about the case for the first time, but light and jovial, teasing each other about whether they “got off” watching violent porn.

Debut writer Georgie Dettmer’s Are You Watching? starts provocative and continues that way. The two preteen girls, played by Abby McCann and Kosar Ali, stay onstage throughout, amid a series of vignettes exploring contemporary sexual politics. It’s never quite clear if the girls are properly understanding what’s playing out in front of them, or if they are watching without seeing, with the detachedness common to Gen Alpha but terrifying to anyone over the age of 20.

Before the girls’ eyes, a young journalist takes part in a dubious experiment monitoring her sexual arousal; a mother comes to terms with the disappearance of her teenage daughter; a son realises his father has used his likeness to generate AI images of child sex abuse. It’s written with a rawness that never tips into sensationalism, and an unexpectedly wry sense of humour (“What subject?’ responds one character to “Have you been tested?”).

The complex web of plotlines is carried by a hardworking, multiroling ensemble, directed slickly by Jess Edwards. Each vignette is punctuated by a flash of red light and an oppressive blast from the sound system, bringing us forcefully back into the room. Sound designer XANA also uses recorded sex noises to great effect – we feel both exposed and like voyeurs, noticing every bodily twitch from the cast. It’s a narrow traverse staging, where there doesn’t seem to be anywhere for the actors to hide.

Overarching themes begin to emerge – the ethics of recording sex acts, the limits of consent in an age shaped by easily accessible violent sexual imagery, the conflict between sexual desire and personal morals, and how the rise of AI-generated imagery complicates all of this. Some scenes gently unravel and remain ambiguous, while others go straight for the jugular. The experiment involving the journalist, for one, culminates in her becoming aroused by a video depicting a murdered woman.

More often than not, though, Dettmer loses track of what she wants to say, and moves on to the next vignette before our skin really starts crawling, leaving us wanting to see these characters through to the bitter end. The storyline about the missing child never gets to the revelation of tragedy it’s been hinting at, but takes an abrupt turn into commentary on far-right conspiracy theories, which feels like an extract from a different play.

Eventually the story does find its way back to the Pelicot case, via a fictional film adaptation of Gisèle’s story, and in doing so finds its footing. The luminous white-tiled set – which has had something of the Mediterranean swimming pool to it up to now – gradually becomes drenched in blood, as the two girls come to recognise the severity of what they’ve been exposed to. There’s a sense that this was in fact their story, their journey and evolving relationship to sexual violence, all along.

This is an exceptionally strong piece from a writer making her professional debut, and none of the canny theatrical devices on display here feel gimmicky. It could benefit from a tighter edit, though in its current, less polished form still establishes Dettmer as an able commentator across the spectrum of contemporary desire and violence.

Are You Watching? plays at the Royal Court until 4 July