Traumboy, 5 Stars

Traumboy
Summerhall
Theatre

“Daniel is an artist. He is also a sex worker. Through accounts of clients and their desires, Traumboy explores why he chose this profession and why having sex for money is still considered taboo. Told with humour and honesty, this interactive performance challenges audiences to scrutinise their own sexual ideals and appetites, as Daniel performs different roles for his customers – and the audience. Where do your boundaries lie? Traumboy is performed in response to Anne Welenc’s Traumgirl: a performance from the perspective of a female sex worker. Part of Pro Helvetia’s Swiss Selection Edinburgh.”

Review by Richard Lambert, 5 Stars

Well this is something different!

Ever wanted to have a heart to heart CHAT with a rent boy? Well here’s your chance. Part performance, part meet and greet, Daniel Hellmann is here to reveal the inside skinny on being a professional sex worker.

Keen for you to get to know him, he shows pictures of himself as a baby and growing up through various stage of his life that brought him to a very handsome 33 year old gay man. On the way he was a performer, and an opera singer and this is where you wonder at the story.

He asks you to question things he’s said, his age, his name. Why did we believe him when he told us? He asks what you sell in yourself for your work….it’s an insightful interrogation of the audience. He challenges the perception of his role and compares it to your own. He explains how being a sex worker is a role, a performance, and that he’s many things to many clients. Could it possibly be that his performance claiming to be a sex worker is just that – a performance based on a fictional story? He seems credible, he appears open and honest, he’s got some costumes and kit…..but what is the reality?

A wonderfully suitable finale: singing in a gas mask, bare chested, leather trousers and platform shoes. You’ll go home with a message that sex workers are human too, it’s all a performance. He’ll also gve you his WhatsApp number in case you’d like to be his new client.