Hooray for Hollywood

Don't come to 'Hooray for Hollywood' expecting a paean to the golden age of the movies. The title is a bitter irony; the production is a puppet show, based on the writer/director's autobiographical material, about the child porn industry. Full marks for audacity, and for a passionate commitment to righting a societal wrong (the show is followed nightly by a discussion with Childline) - even if the production's horror, and its moral outrage, impede nuance or narrative sophistication.

The action is shown in a screen-shaped aperture that opens and closes upstage, to reveal the puppet Sylvia and her parents - live actors whom we see, a la Tom and Jerry, from the waist down. In fragmentary scenes, whose connections to one another are (physically and narratively) clumsy, Sylvia is pimped out by mum and dad to appear in pornographic photo shoots and movies. It's unremittingly horrible. If the parents have qualms, they're not shown. The police dismiss Sylvia's pleas out of hand. Her films go from despicable to murderous. Certain video sequences are unclear; but there's a lovely climax, as the action reaches out beyond the stage's frame. With delicate manipulation of its waif-like puppets, this grisly account makes us feel Sylvia's plight, if not understand how and why it has come to pass.