VAULT Festival continues in Waterloo, London with some spectacular shows and performances. Loverboy’s Fallon Gold is particularly excited about a tale of lesbian dogging, feminist porn, love and censorship. She spoke to playwright Naomi Westerman about what we can expect from this new queer piece of theatre.

I’ll cut to the chase – most people I’ve mentioned Puppy to have been surprised that queer women would be into dogging. I know, I know… eyeroll etc… queer sexuality for women is generally seen as just very vanilla, isn’t it?
I know! I’m not entirely certain if there is any female same-sex dogging. Puppy was originally a short play about two people meeting and falling in love whilst dogging (so nothing about feminist porn or protest), and I originally wrote the main couple as being heterosexual. When I decided to extend it into a full-length play, I just thought, ‘what am I doing?’ I knew I wanted the play to have a female protagonist, so changing them to a lesbian couple seemed logical. I don’t know to what extent male and female sexualities differ, but I like the subversiveness of queer women doing something generally perceived as being dominated by male sexuality. I’m all about busting out of stereotypes!

Puppy is also highlighting feminist porn – again the sheltered bunnies out there might think that all porn is anti-feminist, anti-women and all feminists hate porn. Can you say what you class as feminist porn and why it’s important?
I was inspired to write that storyline by a female erotic filmmaker, Erika Lust. I don’t think porn is inherently anti-feminist, but the mainstream porn industry is predicated on misogyny (despite being one of the few industries where women out-earn men). A 2010 survey of top-rented porn titles found that 88% of scenes showed acts of physical violence against women and more than half showed verbal abuse. The mainstream porn industry, in an attempt to keep audience interest by always chasing the new, has normalised a lot of things (lack of pubic hair, anal, facials) that were once considered more unusual to the point where some women feel that they are norm and feel pressured to do them. Feminist porn companies treat their workers fairly and give them control over their own work: emphasis is put on safe sex, actively showing practical elements like the need for lube (rather than the magical instant self-lubricating woman found in mainstream porn!), and most crucially female pleasure and sexual satisfaction. I think porn is always going to exist, so we can either ignore it or try to take control of it.

Puppy covers the proposed legislation again certain ‘acts’ and images in porn in the UK that caused outrage when it was revealed. Why do you think that it’s important that queers and feminists and feministqueers fight against this legislation – even if they’re not into porn themselves?
When this legislation was first mooted campaigners noticed that it seemed to ban acts portraying or emphasising female pleasure, while equally dangerous acts focusing on male pleasure were not; facesitting versus skullfucking, for example. And the legislation does not differentiate between consensual and non-consensual acts. Fundamentally it is censorship and any attempts at censorship must be handled carefully and not through arbitrary rules.

I bloody love feminist theatre – there’s such a rich history of it in the UK. And feminist, queer, political theatre seems to be having a renaissance. How much is that because of our horrendously stifling political climate and how much is that support from the arts world, do you think?
They feed into and off each other, I think. Feminism is definitely having a ‘moment’ in the theatre world and sometimes I worry about this being a fad rather than a permanent change. Most of the conversations I have with theatres and theatre-makers ends up being about diversity and equality; these are issues very much on people’s minds. Female and GLBT representation has always been crucial to me and my artistic practice, but I also do a lot of work around disability which is still terrifyingly marginalised in the arts world. I do think that the current political climate (Brexit, Trump, etc.) has made theatre-makers feel an increased urgency to be more political.

What’s next for you?
I have another play on at VAULT, ‘Claustrophilia’ (a dark drama about a kidnap victim), and I’m currently developing a crazy Brechtian semi-verbatim play about disability and the benefits system that centres around a hostage crisis. I also have a feature film and a radio comedy series in development, have been asked to extend a short play I wrote for the St James Theatre to full-length, and am spending a year writing a play with/for the disability theatre company Graeae.

What are you looking forward to seeing at VAULT Festival?
I’m really excited for the immersive Great Gatsby, and other queer plays like Prom Kween and HIP. And I always love to discover new comedians.

Puppy is on at VAULT Festival 23rd February and 2nd March