Do you all your desire dictates. Imagination is the only truth.
Marquis de Sade

The Edinburgh Festival is in full swing, albeit dampened by the perpetual rain that has hit Scotland in the wake of some transatlantic hurricane or other. It's a depressingly far cry from the sun-drenched Mediterranean, so I went out to the theatre last night to see XXX, a show loosely based on the Marquis de Sade's 'The Philosophy of the Boudoir' in which a young woman is sexually initiated by a group of libertines. It was performed by the Catalan theatre group La Fura Dels Baus, and has caused a bit of a stir with its full-on nudity and simulated sex acts in front of a huge video screen showing explicit images of oral and anal sex, masturbation, bestiality, and other everyday stuff, including a live link-up to an internet porn site. Admittedly it was quite well done, and the acting was good, but I can't say it affected me much. I can only conclude that I've become unshockable when it comes to sex. A fire alarm went off as the show was nearing its end and the whole building had to be evacuated, so I missed the climax. No change there then. At the time I assumed it was part of the performance.