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Old 06-15-2013, 07:35 PM
daveduchovny daveduchovny is offline
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London, UK - I've just been to Oreet Ashery's Party For Freedom. Someone has already posted a Vimeo link to the trailer in another thread.

It's listed as running until 22 June - the website with details/event listings is here but I think there is only one more actual "party" event, most of it looks like debates.

The event started off just like a regular party (effectively it is, the host has invited the performers and is otherwise unaffiliated with them) Then the performers appear. Three male, four female, carrying boxes and equipment which they proceed to set up regardless of where people happen to be standing and talking. Straight away all the women get topless, while they are still setting up. Two of them in particular are very young and attractive.

After everything is set up (there was a screen, a projector, a rubber dinghy, a bubble machine, and chairs have been put out for the guests, making it more like a regular "theatre" type performance), they start taking off their shoes and socks. And pants. Eventually 6 of the performers are naked (one of the men stays dressed throughout). They casually walk among the audience members, handing out a camcorder, a digital camera and a torch (no other photography is permitted). One of the male performers is a bit touchy-feely with the audience, making them hold hands with each other and lying in a (male) spectator's lap. The female performers are touchy-feely with their fellow performers but apart from occasional glancing brushes against their body as they moved among us, there was no significant physical contact.

None of the performers are the slightest bit modest about any part of their bodies (except the dressed dude). The room is mostly dark but there is light from the projector, from coloured lights placed by the performers, and the aforementioned torch which we are allowed to shine wherever we want!

They do little dances and set-piece performance art through the evening. They lie entwined with each other in the dinghy. They wrestle each other, limbs akimbo, one of the girls lay on the floor repeatedly raising her legs in the air, one of the guys stood in front of the projector so the shadow of his dangling scrotum played on the big screen. One set piece involved one of the women with a banana in her mouth and the other end (I didn't have a good enough view for specifics), with a sparkler stuck in each banana. While everyone else blew party blowers.

Sometimes they involved the audience. They invited a guy into what looked like a group cuddle (with 2 naked girls and one of the guys) but then wrapped him in a carpet and kidnapped him. They then invited the rest of the audience to buy his freedom with their own clothes. Most of us gave up our shoes, a handful went as far as trousers, two male audience members got fully naked. The lady spectators were naturally more modest, but two stripped down to bras, one (gorgeous) gave up her tights, and one older lady went topless, though it turned out she was part of the organisation that helped fund the project.

Occasionally the performers faded into the background and the films took prominence - lots of nudity in those, involving different performers. There was a scene involving rimming. Most of it was just weird imagery with a reassuring voiceover explaining various concepts related to "the message" of the project. Towards the end, the performers all dressed and it was just video, explaining how the freedom of sexuality and nudity and artistic vision has been repressed in different ways. At the end they packed up and were out of there very quickly, one or two people got a quick chat with them but there was no after-show mingling.

Of course when the lights came on some of the audience members were still in a state of undress. The tights girl had a short skirt on but didn't seem to mind displaying her pink underwear as she pulled her tights back on.

I must say it was a great way to spend an evening, the young brunette performer (Alice) was stunning and spent much of the evening within an arms length of me, totally nude. The young blonde performer (Elizabeth) was also gorgeous. I can say that having inspected every inch of them both. They were both so at ease being naked in front of so many people staring at them - as were all the performers. There was plenty of humour in the performance, and I have some sympathy for the more serious aspect of their message, so it was enjoyable as a piece of art in its own right. But beautiful female nudity + audience participation just presses all the right buttons for me. Absolutely amazing 2 hours.
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