Unleashed: an "anti-opera" about Maleness

UNLEASHED is about what men want, told from the perspective of men who want to have really hard sex with each other. What were they proud of? What did they regret?

Most of all: how far would they go?

Conceived for two violins, tape and three male performers, UNLEASHED is an opera about coping with a violent world, exploring sex at the limits, and why we find ourselves there. It offers a powerful perspective on sexuality, violence and masculinity in our modern world.

Rather than constructing a fictional narrative, composer Philip Venables and writer Nick Blackburn have used verbatim transcripts of real everyday men talking about hard sex with each other. It’s content is both shocking and arousing, compelling us to critique our own sexualities, our own personal taboos and preferences, and the precarious balance between the normal and the peculiar.