Two lovers and two siblings.
How far are they prepared to go to prove their devotion? And will their love survive when subjected to the most extreme violence?
Recommended for ages 16+.
Thematic triggers:
This production includes prolonged nudity, torture, mutilation, murder, sex, incest, violence including sexual violence, forced eating, suicide including hanging, drug abuse and drugging, gender reassignment surgery as well as homophobic and misogynistic language, needles and blood.
Tue 21 Jul – Sat 29 Aug 2026
Almeida Theater
Almeida Street,
London N1 1TA
In Rebecca Frecknall’s production of Cleansed at the Almeida Theatre, almost the entire main cast experiences prolonged, full-frontal nudity. Written by Sarah Kane, the script explicitly uses nudity, stripping, and body horror as central metaphors for vulnerability, trauma, and stripping away the human ego.
The specific characters and actors who perform nude in the production include:
The Main Characters Involved in Nudity
- Grace & Graham: Played by Pearl Chanda and Jack Riddiford. Grace enters the institution to claim the clothes of her dead brother, Graham. As she attempts to biologically “become” him through a forced, graphic gender-reassignment storyline, both characters are subjected to full nudity to show the physical trials of her transformation.
- Carl & Rod: Played by Luke Cinque-White and Parth Thakerar. As a gay couple subjected to violent “deprogramming” and systemic torture by the institution, their scenes of sexual intimacy, vulnerability, and physical mutilation involve prolonged, full-frontal male nudity.
- Robin: Played by Stuart Thompson. In a highly symbolic scene, the childlike Robin strips entirely naked to give his own clothes to Grace, spending a portion of the play completely exposed.
- The Woman (The Peepshow Dancer): Played by Lizzy Connolly. She performs highly explicit, revealing, and vulnerable acts inside a portable booth as part of her interactions with the torturer, Tinker.