The porn industry is undergoing a revolution in which both sex professionals and amateurs have started to showcase and produce their own content, monetizing directly without the involvement of production companies but using live streaming platforms like Cam4, Xvideos, etc. Both production and consumption are becoming increasingly accessible with just a click on the internet.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the director, actress, and playwright Janaina Leite conceived a series of presentations and experiments that resulted in the "Pornoshow O Armário Normando." In this show, the audience could navigate the Zoom platform and watch, like in a peep show, the performances created by each performer, as well as create her solo show, "Camming - 101 noites."

For those familiar with Janaina's trajectory, her academic interest and research in Theatre of the Real, Autofiction Theatre where reality and fiction blend, is evident. Performers bring their own stories and experiences to the stage.

After the pandemic, part of this group finally met in person to create the play "History of the Eye - A Porn-Noir Fairy Tale," which premiered in Brazil in 2022, during Bolsonaro's presidency of Brazil, and in Germany on February 4, 2024, as the invited show representing Brazil at the Latin American Theatre Festival ¡Adelante!, held in Heidelberg.

Twelve performers, some sex professionals and others not, cis and trans bodies, collectively created the play. The show alternates between personal testimonials from the performers and the narration of the story from the book "History of the Eye" by the French writer Georges Bataille, published in 1928, using excerpts chosen by the interpreters. As the audience enters the theatre, the performers are already on stage dancing, moving, greeting acquaintances in the audience, establishing an intimate and complicit relationship from the beginning. A festive atmosphere is established from the outset.

Each performer answers the question, "What is your relationship with pornography?" The multiple accounts portray a range from sex professionals who make pornography their source of income to others whose contact with pornography began with the creation of the show. Desire and pleasure manifest uniquely for each.

The stage exudes a hedonistic celebration of the body and pleasure. There is a synergy among the performers who can choose to act or not in some scenes, including moments of interactivity with the audience in the game "truth or dare." The audience did not shy away from scenes of licking and spanking.

Even during the intermission, called the intermezzo, the performer André Medeiros Martins, in the role of Master of Ceremonies, sings songs and later enters a plastic kiddie pool, inviting anyone from the audience to piss on him. This unconventional act, also a fetish practice known as "pissing," was embraced by some attendees.

Other fetish practices presented included fisting, where a performer was fisted by an audience member, followed by one of the most suspenseful moments of the play where a bullfight described in the book is enacted with a suspension scene presented by Pombo Morcego, Darktitah, and Pamkhada, with the audience closely watching on stage.

The play unabashedly exposes bodies, fetishes, taboos, and desires, accompanied by live music. The German audience did not inhibit or intimidate, on the contrary, actively participated in the show. It was three hours of attraction and seduction between the performers and the audience, who, in this case, was not separated by a computer screen or protected by the darkness of a peep showroom but gathered on the theatre stage, illuminated by spotlights and open to experiencing their desires, libidos, fetishes, and pleasure.

História do Olho • Um Conto de Fadas Pornô-Noir | History of the Eye • A Porn-Noir Fairy Tale

Concept, direction, dramaturgy, and performance: Janaina Leite / Dramaturgy and direction assistance: Lara Duarte and André Medeiros Martins / Performers: André Medeiros Martins, Armr'Ore Erormray, Carô Calsone, Cusko, Ian Figlioulo, Georgia Vitrilis, Isabel Soares, Lucas Scudellari, Ultra Martini, Vinithekid, and Tadzio Veiga / Original compositions and performance: A. M. Martins, U. Martini, and Vinithekid / Light: Wagner Antônio / Costume: Melina Schleder / Body preparation: L. Duarte / Arrangements and sound design: Renato Navarro / Musical production: Mateus Capelo / Suspension team: Pombo Morcego, Darktitah, and Pamkhada / Articulated mannequin conception and scenographic assistance: Tadzio Veiga / Scenic technicians: Edson Luna and Wanderley Wagner da Silva / Stage coordination: Cusko / Live sound operation - Vinithekid / Sound technician: R. Navarro / Light operator: Felipe Tchaça. Duration: 180 min.