Some have mentioned the stage version (original) of 'Oh Calcutta'. I saw it in a London West End theatre when it came out. One scene has stuck with me over the years, both for its nudity and erotic value . An actress (can't remember who now) is at the centre of the stage towards the front; she has her back to the audience. She is about to be caned. There is a commentary which says that, although she's an actress, she doesn't have to go through with the scene; she can stop at any time and walk off. She's told to remove her skirt. Then to pull her knickers down, and bend over with her bare bum in the air for the audience to see. She's reminded that she is completely free to disobey and walk off stage. This really adds to the tension of the scene. Will she comply and display her bare arse to the audience, or not? She does, and pulls her knickers down for us. The scene is very well lit, and we see her bum cheeks and cleft very clearly, with a tuft of pubic hair between her legs as she bends over. Kenneth Tynan, who put the show together and directed it, was very clear that it was to be adult erotic entertainment. I certainly found it so.
I'm a retired theatre teacher and I've started my own theatre company. There are several guys in out men's nude clubs that want me to do a play with an all nude male cast. They don't seem to understand how that works in theatre. I am not against nudity on stage but it has to be justified. To have naked men onstage just to have naked men is gratuitous and serves no theatrical purpose. I do like the idea of a production with all nude men because by the first 10 minutes the audience doesn't see it. If you've ever seen the movie Prospero's Books you know what I mean. Everyone is nude and when a dressed actor (Mark Rylance) comes on stage later in the movie, it's shocking.I've seen Take Me Out on Broadway and by a local amateur group. The Broadway production was wonderful but the local, not so much. The director failed to tell the actors who would be nude to stop shaving their bodies. Professional baseball players have body and pubic hair! I've also seen Equus several times, the most recent with Daniel Radcliff. It's one of my favorite plays and DR did a great job! He looked nice naked, too. The reception of the nudity was a total opposite of the nudity in the original Broadway tour that I saw in Cincinnati. When the actor got naked the audience was suddenly pulled out of the play and were aware of a naked man on stage, not a character being stripped to his essence. I love Polobulus' nude work.So, does anyone have suggestions of plays the could be done with total nudity?
When I lived in Edinburgh, I saw ads for a play during the Fringe called Apollo/Dionysus. As I understand it was basically the two Greek gods in dialogue arguing about whose approach to life was best, and they were both portrayed by nude men while the audience received either bread and water or wine and cheese depending on whose side of the house they were seated on. I also took a class from a playwright who told us about his play Carthage Must Be Destroyed, the first act of which was set in a bath with the three male actors naked the whole time. Those both might be possibilities for you, nakednlouisville.
Personally, I've thought it would be interesting to stage a medieval play like The Summoning of Everyman with a nude cast. I imagine more abstract works like those by Brecht or Becket could utilize nudity in an effective and artistic way without it being salacious. There are certainly a lot of possibilities.
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