Hot 'N Throbbing

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"Hot 'N Throbbing" is a 1990 one act play written by Pulitzer prize-winning playwright and Brown University professor Paula Vogel. The play is a confrontational statement on the intersection of pornography and domestic violence which includes adult language, violence and full frontal male nudity.

1 Characters
2 Plot Synopsis
3 Themes
4 Critical Reception
5 External links

[edit] Characters

Charlene; a middle aged single mother who writes Feminist pornographic screenplays
Calvin; Charlene's fourteen year old son. Calvin is a bookish voyeur.
Leslie Ann; Charlene's sexually precocious daughter who dresses in clothing more suggestive that considered appropriate for a girl of fifteen.
Clyde; Charlene's violent and alcoholic ex-husband
The Voice-Over; an actress to stand in for Charlene's inner monolouge and to enact her screenplay's contents onstage
The Voice; an actor to stand in for the inner monolouge of other characters, primarily Clyde.

[edit] Plot Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The central action of Hot 'N Throbbing revolves around the arrival of Clyde late on a Friday night, drunk and intending to proposition Charlene despite a restraining order against him because of past domestic violence. When Charlene refuses to admit him, Clyde forces his way inside and she ineptly shoots him in the buttocks. Now sobered and incapacitated, Clyde's wound is tended to by Charlene and they take the opportunity to reminisce about old times (as well as the play's ideas about heterosexual relations) and reach an apparent reconciliation in which Charlene lets Clyde spend the night. Clyde explains that he came to his former home after patronizing an adult bookstore and failing to pick up a prostitiute because of a lack of funds. As a final sex scene begins Clyde flys into a fit of rage and strangles Charlene with his belt.

[edit] Themes

The play is a statement in the vein of radical feminist thought which attributes domestic violence to the direct influence of pornography. This is in contrast to more contemporary feminist ideologies such as sex-positive feminism. A corollary subject is Vogel's indictment of attempts by pornographic film companies owned and operated by women to create positive alternatives to mainstream pornography. This is evoked by a flash-forward scene involving an adult actress who, despite believing that she is participating in a production utilizing one of Charlene's scripts, turns out to be the victim of a snuff film. Also discussed is the dysfunction of modern family relationships, the craft of writing, and adolescensce.