Andy Warhol's Pork (also known as Pork) is the first and only play by Andy Warhol. It was directed by Anthony Ingrassia, produced by Ira Gale, and stage-managed by Leee Black Childers.[1][2] Pork opened on May 5, 1971, at La MaMa Experimental Theatre in New York City for a two-week run.[3] It was brought to the Roundhouse in London for a six-week run in August 1971.[4]
The production was controversial due to the nudity and simulated sexual acts performed. In London, the lead actress Geri Miller caused a scandal when she was arrested for exposing her breast during a photo session in front of Clarence House, the residence of the Queen Mother.[5][6] Musician David Bowie, who saw the play, later hired several of the Pork cast members to join his management firm MainMan.[7][8]
Pork was based on tape-recorded conversations between Brigid Berlin and Warhol during which Brigid would play for Warhol tapes she had made of phone conversations between herself and her mother, socialite Honey Berlin.[9]
The play featured Jayne County as "Vulva," Cherry Vanilla as "Amanda Pork," Tony Zanetta as a Warhol-analogue called B. Marlowe, Geri Miller as Josie, Cleve Roller, Julia Breck, and Suzanne Smith.[10][3][11][12] Other cast members included the "Pepsodent Twins" who, according to Jayne County, represented Warhol's boyfriend Jed Johnson and his twin brother, Jay Johnson.[13][14]
According to a review of the London production, "[Amanda] Pork is estranged from her husband and attended by the Pepsodent twins, two boys alike only in their nudity and their pastel powdered genitals."[13]
Reviewing Pork for The New York Times, journalist Grace Glueck wrote, "All in all, it's a cozy bunch; take out the fornication, masturbation, defecation and prevarication with which 'Pork' is larded and you might have a certain similarity to the juvenile gang in 'You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown.'"[3]
The British press panned the play.[15] Journalist Valerie Jenkins wrote for the Evening Standard that "Pork's redeeming essence is that it finds itself so ridiculous; from start to finish it demands not to be taken seriously; it's Warhol people debunking themselves."[16]
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