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# A Playful and Prurient Performance About Pornography
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/christopher-green-prurience-guggenheim-museum/
- Published: 2018-03-20T21:24:29.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T15:55:46.000Z
- Description: In Prurience, Christopher Green asks his audience to "consider if society is in the grip of an actual addiction or a moral panic."
- Author: Elisa Wouk Almino
- Tags: Art, Events, Guggenheim Museum, pornography, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-18 14:37 (2018)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2018/03/prurience-by-christopher-green.jpg)

Prurience by Christopher Green (image courtesy the artist)

There have lately been plenty of critical takes on porn and its [mostly negative impact on youth](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/07/magazine/teenagers-learning-online-porn-literacy-sex-education.html?ref=hyperallergic.com), so it came somewhat as a surprise to read [Christopher Green’s](http://christophergreen.net/?ref=hyperallergic.com) lighthearted description of his upcoming performance as “entertainment about pornography.” Rather than talk about the repercussions and perceptions of porn in a serious and urgent tone (as is often the case in the media), Green takes a more playful approach. For his performance, cheekily titled [*Prurience: Experiential Entertainment About Our Private Pleasures*](https://www.guggenheim.org/event/prurience?ref=hyperallergic.com), he invites his audience to take part in a fictional self-help group and “consider if society is in the grip of an actual addiction or a moral panic.” And while he is known to make his audience laugh, Green offers real insights as well; he interviewed neuroscientists, sociologists, addiction experts, and therapists for this project.

After a successful run at the Southbank Centre in London, *Prurience* is coming to the US for the first time [at the Guggenheim Museum](https://www.guggenheim.org/event/prurience?ref=hyperallergic.com). Launching tonight and running through March 31, the performance, co-directed by Green and Holly Race Roughan, is part of the museum’s [Works & Process](https://www.guggenheim.org/event/event%5Fseries/works-process?ref=hyperallergic.com) series, which is now in its 33rd year. The occasion will be a unique opportunity to observe a talented writer and dynamic performer who is also trained as a hypnotherapist and has multiple alter-egos, including “rapping pensioner Ida Barr” and cultural critic Jedd O’Sullivan.

**When:** Tuesday, March 20–Saturday, March 31, 8–9:15pm  
**Where:** Guggenheim Museum (1071 Fifth Avenue, Upper East Side, Manhattan)

![<em>Prurience</em> by Christopher Green, co-director Holly Race Roughan (photo by Robert Altman, courtesy the artist)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2018/03/prurience-image-2-gugg.jpg)

Prurience by Christopher Green, co-director Holly Race Roughan (photo by Robert Altman, courtesy the artist)

*More info at the* [*Guggenheim*](https://www.guggenheim.org/event/prurience?ref=hyperallergic.com)*.*