Oh Yes Oh No Louise Orwin photo Field & McGlynn 1

“Before we start, let’s get this straight: I am performing because I want to perform this, you are here because you want to be here. We will say this is consensual. I won’t make you do anything you don’t want to do… You want to do this, don’t you?”

So starts Louise Orwin’s new show Oh Yes Oh No which kicks off it’s new tour at the Burton Taylor theatre tomorrow night after a stellar Edinburgh Fringe run.

“There have been some women and men who have been offended by the show but it only makes me more determined. Yes it adds fuel to the fire but that’s why we need to talk about sex.”

Provocative, surreal and dark, her frank interrogation of sexuality, consent and survival in the wake of #MeToo is embellished with video, audio and interviews of those willing to speak openly and honestly about their sex lives all over the UK.

Attending sex parties and erotica shows, sex workshops as well as running her own, she began amassing data, interviews, opinions and information to get to grips with the endemic shame often surrounding sex.

“It was a really life-changing experience,” she says. “There is still so much shame around sex so when you have suffered sexual violence yourself it’s even more important to talk about it.

IN Oh Yes Oh No, the award-winning performance artist explores how to understand and reclaim your desire in the face of sexual trauma and rape culture, and the power of asking for what you want.

Featuring intricate video design, Barbie and Ken, audience participation, and a heady mix of pop culture references, this show is for anyone who has struggled to find their sexual voice or questioned the sexual culture they were brought up in. It explores what it means to have sexual fantasies that don’t align with your politics and what it means to have a voice.

“As a survivor of sexual violence I began to make the show by examining my own sexual desires’ said Louise, ‘to reclaim my sexuality for myself once and for all. Making the show in the tidal wave of #MeToo, I began feeling that, more than ever, those of us who have struggled with our sexuality have a duty to be reclaiming our lives and bodies for ourselves,” she says.

“I have grown a thicker skin but that’s the nature of this work. it can be exhausting but it’s empowering at the same time”

And yet, although Louise is delighted with the response so far, having taken it to Edinburgh Fringe, it’s her hardest venture yet.

“This show feels like a crystallisation of a question I have been trying to ask through all my previous work, so I began digging further and went around the UK asking the question; “How I could hold such fierce feminine politics and sub sex desires in the same space as having sex with a man?”

Because the things I want in the bedroom, I would not talk about in public or to my friends and that goes against my feminist principles.”

“The thing that makes it even more taboo, is being a survivor of sexual violence, so yes this show is definitely more personal, but I know it’s really important to keep pushing through.

Oh Yes Oh No Louise Orwin photo Field & McGlynn 1

“The flip side is that I have gone on a bit of a journey to get here, and taking this show out on the road and putting it in front of an audience has been a really useful experience for me. Because I know I’m not alone in this thinking and it offers solace for people who feel the same.”

Coming before #MeToo, Louise says the movement has spurred her on even further, that talking about these things can only be positive and by having different conversations around sex can only be a good thing.

By nature we are uncomfortable talking about sex, especially any victims of sexual abuse. There is still so much public shame attached to it and the view is that the survivors are these broken people who should not be talking about sex or desire.

“On the other hand there is a burgeoning sex positivity movement to go against all that old school thinking, but it does feel like we are living in the Dark Ages sometimes.

“There have been some women and men who have been offended by the show but it only makes me more determined. Yes it adds fuel to the fire but that’s why we need to talk about sex.”

So does Louise regret ever beginning this journey? “I have just grown a thicker skin but that’s the nature of this work. Yes it can be exhausting but it’s empowering as well and I feel so connected to this show. I hope the audience in Oxford does too.”

Oh Yes Oh No is for over 18s only and runs at The Burton Taylor Studio on Wednesday October 8.

01865 305305 www.oxfordplayhouse.com