Courtesy of Playbill

Every woman is heard and embraced in Sarah Jones’ solo play “Sell/Buy/Date.” In this reenactment of a futuristic classroom, Jones presents a series of stories, delivered in monologues based on real life women today. 

The play explores the darkest depths of victims, all while revealing the truth of the sex “industry” and toying around with the meaning of “choice.” The classroom takes place on a vivid white panel, nothing but a podium and a file cabinet. Serene Campbell, a British professor lectures the “classroom” (the audience), through files that were stored for learning about the 21st century. The students are exposed to a variety of concepts through different backgrounds, while traveling through the years and even reaching 2030 (or as they say in the play, the “dirty ‘30s”).

The first character presented was a relatively older woman – one who saw sex as an act of intimacy shared between two people who love each other. As she is first introduced to the world of internet pornography, she had come to realize “there is no love in any of this,” elaborating that “[there are] so many people I don’t know whose part belongs to who.” 

The audience felt it all; laughter, indignation and disillusionment. Jones brings a variety of impressions with quick transitions and very minimal props. 

The diverse women and men Jones played throughout the show spanned from African American and Latino to Russian, Indian and Caribbean. Her distinguished accents brought these characters to life. The message here was sold, audience members were able to believe Jones was an old Jewish woman, a young college student who fought for feminism, a Nigerian woman trying to make ends meet for her children back home and a married man who fell into despair after years of paying prostitutes in exchange for pleasure.  

 The play delivers a sequence of stories through different angles of the sex industry. To the classroom, it was absurd and hard to believe, but for the rest of the audience, like Charlotte Murray – who currently supports a non-profit organization that helps women restore their lives – the play symbolized something more. 

“These are real life social issues that women seem to be trapped in. Society has begun to legitimize these acts, leading women to the verge of even committing suicide,” Murray said. “If these women aren’t getting the help they deserve or at least given the outlets for it, we are basically saying this is acceptable.” 

In just 90 minutes, Jones tackles and appoints these rising issues, all while letting the crowd experience the absence of humanity. Without a doubt, Jones brings to this small stage an embodiment of struggling women throughout all of America, primarily based on her own extensive research and interviews with victims. 

“Sell/Buy/Date” held its last show on Sept. 21 in New York’s Live Art Theatre. The show, however, will be playing at Pomona College in California on Monday, Sept. 30, for its final showing.