Tony Winner’s One-Woman Sex Work Play 'Sell/Buy/Date' Runs in LA

LOS ANGELES—A one-woman play focusing on the lives of sex workers and the sex work industry will wrap up its second run in Los Angeles this year, when Tony Award-winner Sarah Jones gives her final performance of Sell/Buy/Date at the Renberg Theatre in the city’s LGBT Center on Saturday.  The show ran during the spring at the Geffen Theate in Los Angeles, where the Los Angeles Times called it “a must-see one-woman marvel.” In the 85-minute performance, Jones—alone on stage throughout—portrays numerous characters, all connected to the sex industry, starting with “a Jewish grandmother recounting her brief experience with internet porn “just for inspiration” when her husband’s sex drive has diminished.” “The vocal timbre and cadence, the facial expression, the stance, even the sense of humor of every one of her characters is so distinctive that collectively they threaten our most basic assumptions about human identity,” the Times wrote of Jones’ performance. “Although some of her characters are more satirically drawn than others, none is inherently unsympathetic. Jones obviously likes her people. She makes them feel real.” “It's called Sell/Buy/Date, which I use as a jumping off point. You know, a ‘sell by date’ is the expiration date on something,” Jones said, explaining her concept for the play. “And the idea is, we're looking at empowerment, women, sex and culture—especially in this Me Too moment—and [asking], How sustainable is where we are right now? Let's ask lots of people from lots of different backgrounds.” The play debuted in New York at the Manhattan Theatre Club two years ago, shortly after the election of Donald Trump.  "This is my dream—to get to do this work in a time like this," Jones told her opening night audience during her Renberg Theatre run, an audience which included such stars as Lily Tomlin, Debra Messing and Laverne Cox. "I hope you'll help me keep doing it. I'll be here as long as you'll have me." Sell/Buy/Date is the first production from Jones’ own new company, Foment. The company has financial backing from the NoVo Foundation and educational group funded largely by billionaire investor Warren Buffet. Photo by Wikimedia Commons