Revenge Porn or the Story of a Body by Carla Ching

When Kat Chan's ex-husband posts revenge porn of her online and tags everyone she knows, she has to wrestle with a choice: be humane to someone she used to love or take him out in a very public way? A play about public shaming, ownership of womens' bodies and images, and the earthquakes that come from dissolving a marriage.
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Revenge Porn or the Story of a Body

Recommended by

  • Kitchen Dog Theater:
    27 Jul. 2023
    “ We are pleased to support this play! It was a Finalist for the 2023 New Works Festival at Kitchen Dog Theater in Dallas, Texas. ”
  • Bernardo Cubría:
    30 Sep. 2022
    “ One of the best plays of the last 10 years. This play is about very nuanced people who are learning to forgive and understand a terrible act taken by someone they love. This play is never what you expect it to be and keep surprising you at every turn, should be done all over the country. ”
  • Nick Malakhow:
    17 Jul. 2021
    “ This beautiful play is like a holograph--you can look at it from so many different angles and see bold and well-defined narratives: a fully fleshed out and complex story of a marriage; an examination of the intersections of relationships, autonomy, and love; generational gifts and scars; bodily ownership, reclamation, and identity; and much more. Each of these individual threads is compelling in and of itself--altogether, they make a stunning “whole” greater than the sum of its parts. Nuanced, human, poignant, funny. ”

Kat Chan (mid 40s), a Chinese American theater director --- equal parts strong and vulnerable, a bit of a Peter Pan
Her daughter, Nice (21), a Chinese American photographer and graduating senior --
a firecracker with an old soul
Her ex-husband, Mac, (40s-50s), a Chinese American sommelier -- simultaneously mercurial and open, charming and funny
Nice's boyfriend JJ, a BIPOC graduating senior --a dreamer and a realist, wears his heart on his sleeve.
Kat's boyfriend Elliot (30), a Korean American theater director -- earnest, funny, truthful, but with a chip on his shoulder
Mac's mother Mia/Kat's mother Betty (60s to 70s),
a Chinese American Mother Who Knows Best/A Helen Zia inspired whipsmart journalist (double cast)

Development History

  • Reading
    ,
    Play Per View Fundraiser for Ma-Yi Theater Company microgrants for artists
    ,
    2021
  • Residency
    ,
    O’Neill Playwrights Conference
    ,
    2021
  • Reading
    ,
    Ammo Theatre Company
    ,
    2020
  • Commission
    ,
    Atlantic Theater Company

Production History

  • Professional
    ,
    Ammunition Theatre Company
    ,
    2022

Awards

LA New Play Prize
,
Los Angeles New Play Project
,
2021