‘It’s A Motherf**king Pleasure’ – Written by Samuel Brewer, Aarian Mehrabani and Chloe Palmer. Directed by Josh Roche. Presented by ArtsEmerson at the Emerson Paramount Center, Jackie Liebergott Black Box, 559 Washington Street, Boston, through April 13, 2025
By Mike Hoban
ArtsEmerson’s latest offering, the incongruously-named It’s A Motherf$%*ing Pleasure by disability-led theatre company FlawBored, is a riotous, blistering indictment of identity politics that pushes audiences to look at their own discomfort when interacting with differently-abled or marginalized groups. The production uses ableism (defining people by their disabilities) as a springboard for the absurd lengths people sometimes go to attempt to make “others” feel comfortable – while it’s clear they’re grossly uncomfortable themselves. And although ableism is the focus of this show, it could easily be a stand-in for excessive white guilt or other well-intentioned but ultimately disingenuous gestures.
(Considering the show is a satire on identity politics, the pre-show land acknowledgment by Ronee Penoi, a Laguna Pueblo/Cherokee, and an announcement by a person from anti-ableist/anti-racist nonprofit Think Outside the Vox – who announced their pronouns and identified as “Latinx” – was unintentionally amusing.)
FlawBored writer-performers Samuel Brewer, Aarian Mehrabani (who are both low vision), and Chloe Palmer (who is not) open the show with an introduction designed to make members of disabled or marginalized communities feel comfortable. The introduction quickly ratchets up its levels of absurdity, as the performers frantically adjust light levels for the vision-impaired, shout out their lines for the hard of hearing, and throw out earplugs to the audience for the noise-sensitive, while also pandering to the gay and brown people in their inclusivity-palooza. The bit runs a little bit long, but it sets the stage for the thought-provoking and hilarious play-within-a-play that follows.
A PR firm, the RIZE Talent Agency, responds to a charge of ableism by recruiting a social media influencer who happens to be blind and turns him into a “blind influencer”. The firm ghostwrites a book for him on the virtues of blindness, “We Should All Be Blind,” and the tome spawns a cottage industry of money-making blind experiences, including literal blind dating and dining. As the scheme unfolds, the players let us see ourselves in their characters. In one scene, HR head Helen (Palmer) unthinkingly tells her blind co-worker, “I’ll see you later,” then bends herself into a guilt-ridden pretzel as she tries to apologize for her egregious “ableist” faux pas. There’s also a sobering twist to the ridiculousness, and the justifications on the part of the agency to squeeze even more money out of a tragedy speak volumes about corporate greed.
In the press materials, FlawBored makes it clear that Motherf$%*ing Pleasure “is not disability ‘trauma-porn’ or ‘pity-porn’. What it definitely is is an honest look into the discomfort (or “Ableist Anxiety” as one character calls it) felt by those who don’t fit into any disabled or marginalized category around those that do. It’s also a lot of fun and a great antidote to the virtue signaling and finger wagging that dominates social media. See it. For more information and tickets, go to: https://artsemerson.org/
