An unflinchingly honest show both about and starring sex workers will be shown at Weston-super-Mare’s Tropicana.

The award-winning Sex Worker’s Opera is touring the UK for the first time, following sell-out shows in Ireland and Greece.

Half the cast are sex workers who are tired of being spoken for, and the provocative show gives them a chance to tell their own stories on their own terms.

It blends opera with hip-hop, sound art, projections and poetry to provide an honest and uplifting insight into the lives of sex workers around the world.

Co-director Siobhan Knox said: “Everyone has an opinion about sex work, even if it’s a joke or something they’ve heard on TV.

“Art and the media portray sex work in a very one dimensional way, it is either extremely glamorous or extremely tragic, and one of the messages of the show is that sex work is human; it is not good or bad, it’s just complex.”

The opera will explore the stories of sex workers from 17 countries, including one giving marital advice, a webcam model, and a daughter making career choices in a male-dominated world.

The Independent described the show as ‘one of the most important pieces of theatre you’ll see this year’.

The Sex Worker’s Opera will be performed at the Theatre Tropicana, in Marine Parade, on November 16-18 at 7.30pm.

Tickets, priced £10-14, are available from www.thetheatreorchard.org.uk or 01179 020344.

People must be aged 16 and over to watch, and it does contain strobe lighting.

The Mercury has teamed up with the Theatre Tropicana to offer two pairs of tickets to the show.

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