Words: Elodie Marriott 

4 stars 

Issy Knowles’ one-woman dark comedy is an intense, empathetic, and deeply affecting commentary on the rise of extreme challenges performed by sex workers hoping to go viral. Cheerfully littering the floor with contraceptives, Polly swears she’s up for anything: “Just don’t kill me!” 

We’re invited to wear anonymising blue balaclavas to view the performance, the audience fittingly cast as her faceless subscribers. Early on, Knowles sheds her silk robe to simulate disturbing sexual encounters in a pair of silicon breasts. These choices are so effective in evoking shame and acknowledgment of your own complicity that you begin to feel bad for buying a ticket. 

Aside from the resolutely virginal Catholic school girl origin story, little else of Body Count feels overly satirical. The stiff-smile optimism and relentless insistence that she’s “making a Feminist choice” by indulging in her “fantasy” of complying with violent requests from 1,000 men who, despite having queued for hours, think Polly is disgusting, is portrayed with distressing realism. 

Dialogue is often taken directly from documentaries on these explicit stunts. Just one look at an adult creator’s social media will confirm how obsessed some men are with their fathers’ opinion. Knowles takes a very contentious topic and handles it with both care and criticism. 

Upsetting and uncomfortable, Body Count is unforgettable. 

Body Count
The Green at Pleasance Courtyard 
19:15
22 – 25 Aug