Dirty Books – 21 May 2026

An immersive dive into Comstock’s anti-obscenity crusade, Dirty Books is a playful, imaginative look at the forbidden fruits of hedonism. Centering around two couples comprised of smut writers, the story evolves (with audience participation) into a tale of two women who fall in love and leave their husbands to write books with realistic lesbian love scenes. The show is guided by a warden who imparts order with her flashlight and also shares historical context and suggestions contributed by the audience in various formats before and during the performance. The lighting is creative given the space and the use of every nook and cranny was creative and well thought out. Taken as a whole, the experience feels a little uneven at times, but worth sticking with.

Dirty Books leaves a lot of loose threads that were noticeable after the fact. For example, why is the female protagonist stealing her own book in the beginning? Perhaps it has the dedication of her lover, but that still leaves unanswered what happened with her lover, making the conceit at the beginning one big unanswered question of, “why are we here?” There was no follow up regarding the woman the warden loved whose pictures were in her lunch box. Her embarrassment was one of the most emotional moments of the play, but then it vanished, never to be seen from or heard from again. An audience member was interviewed and given a whistle—what for? They were never asked to use it. Dirty Books had a lot of set up for moments that didn’t happen. At times this was a little unsatisfying as an audience member.

But not always. There were a lot of elements of this production that were well done. The content drawn from the audience was funny, whether solicited in writing before the show via prompts in various parts of the exhibit or by putting people on the spot during the performance. The improvised reactions to audience suggestions were handled well, and the cast clearly exceled at thinking on their feet. The central conceit with the two men collaborating on smutty lesbian novels was fun at first, but became hackneyed about halfway through. The story of their wives falling in love with each other was more compelling, and led to some beautiful moments. My favorite moment was towards the end when the protagonist phoned a friend, so to speak, and called people in the audience to ask her questions about love. That moment was so tender and vulnerable—in that moment, I could see how all of the societal pressures added up to individual pain.

Dirty Books is an immersive show that, despite its title, isn’t really raunchy or erotic. It’s more abstract; it’s about love in the broad sense and what it means to want a moment of pleasure to linger long enough to fully experience it. The show acknowledges love as desire, but also as playful, childish, and shy. It’s a dynamic celebration of the vastness of what it can mean to share a life with someone and what it means to do so unapologetically. It posits that loving unabashedly is the only way a person can truly be free.

I attended this performance on a press pass from DKC/O&M.