No more stigmas, exploitation or pity porn. 'Show Me Yours, I'll Show You Mine' approaches the life of a sex worker with raw honesty.

'Show Me Yours, I'll Show You Mine' is a fifty-minute stage condensation of over ten hours worth of interviews that producer, writer and performer Tim Spencer conducted with a real life male sex worker in Sydney.

“Everything that happened on stage has happened in real life. It was really just a process of editing the show to construct a sort of cogent journey that the both of us went through. I was very keen to be upfront about that in the show and the interview didn't happen exactly like it is. Everything you see on stage actually happened, but probably in a different order.”

On stage, Tim Spencer and Not-Nick, the male sex worker performed by Charles Purcell, exchange lives.  

“We talk a lot about work. He talks of the ins and outs of his experience as a sex worker and the difficulties that come along with that. He also talks about some of the joys and the exciting things about being a sex worker. I try to engage in discussion about the performative aspect of his work. What was interesting was to form the connections between his double life and performative aspect and my life as an actor and in theatre — those connections between performing and acting.

“As the interview goes on and we get more comfortable with each other we start to talk about more personal aspects of our lives such as our families and some of the relationships we've had with our fathers in particular. There's also some very fun stuff that sort of just came up as stuff does in conversation. The weird tangents that you go off on that you would never have thought to bring up. There are some very special moments.”

One of the elements of this carefully structured piece that Tim was mindful of was the editorial process. “If I was cutting out stuff that I didn't want to have in there, Non-Nick didn't have that opportunity. I felt like that was important to show some things that didn't paint me in such a great light. So in some respects it is a little difficult to have to revisit those mistakes every night but ultimately that's where the dramatic comes from the script.”

With a show so focused on stimulating the audience to form questions and challenge norms, 'Show Me Yours, I'll Show You Mine' has received some interesting reactions from the audience.

“In the past we have had very divergent and diverse responses to the show. There was an interesting event back in Sydney when we did the first workshop showing of the early content. There was a very vocal audience member who was making his displeasure known. What was great about that experience was that Not-Nick himself was actually sitting right behind him. There was a really interesting sort of dynamic in the audience that night where it felt sort of risky because we felt very much like we were able to give voice to someone who wouldn't necessarily have access to theatre in that way.

“Generally, because of the layout of the theatre and because there is a bar where we generally have a drink afterwards, we can chat to people who have just seen it in a very informal setting. That can be so informative because by that stage, people's minds are pretty made up about the show and it's a chance for them to get to know more about the process.”

'Show Me Yours, I'll Show You Mine' plays at La Boite's Roundhouse Theatre Wed July 10 to Sat July 27.