GREEN PORNO (Isabella Rossellini): Sex and celebrity in the service of a serious message

It’s no secret that sex and celebrity sell, so what better use for those ever-reliable marketing commodities than in the service of a serious message? That’s precisely what actress/model/activist Isabella Rossellini has employed in her solo show, GREEN PORNO, now touring the country, to impart her call for environmental protection and acceptance of diversity with humor and intelligence.

Rosselllini’s one-night run at World Café Live was a provocative, informative, and comical examination of the sexual physiology and behavior of assorted insects, animals, and sea life, in all its natural variety. Combining live direct-address delivery with video clips from her popular Sundance TV series of the same name, her lecture-style performance was personal, charming, and engaging, chock-full of fascinating and well-researched details from the scientific disciplines of entomology, zoology, and marine biology, and including loving references to her famous parents (actress Ingrid Bergman and director Robert Rossellini).

Isabella Rossellini in GREEN PORNO live (Photo credit: Marco del Curto)
Isabella Rossellini in GREEN PORNO live (Photo credit: Mario del Curto)

Donning cartoon-like costumes in bright Pop colors, Rossellini assumes the roles of all the sundry creatures under consideration, from spiders to hamsters and dolphins and snails, recreating their wide range of gender identities and distinctive mating rituals, and littering the stage with used props. She leaves the audience with two paramount realizations: that we can’t continue to fill the planet and destroy its wildlife with our carelessly-tossed detritus; and if you think that sexual diversity is in any way “unnatural,” Mother Nature clearly disagrees. So listen to your Mother: Love animals, save the planet, and end sexual discrimination. [World Cafe Live, 3025 Walnut Street] November 14, 2014; worldcafelive.com.  

Above: A video clip of Isabella Rossellini in Seduce Me: Sea Horse from GREEN PORNO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqL_bDP0eAM

 

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