The police have given clearance for the British premiere of a theatre piece called XXX, based on the writings of the Marquis de Sade, that is described as the most sexually explicit show to be staged in this country. Advertised as "beyond porn", XXX features manipulated scenes to make it appear that live sex of almost every description takes place on stage. The publicists for the show have claimed that naked actors and actresses indulge in full sexual intercourse although, in fact, prosthetics and film clips are used at critical moments. Film screens at the back of the stage depict almost every sexual act imaginable including one between a woman and a pony. Close-up images of genitals are shown on stage and on screen and each night a member of the audience is asked on stage to act out his or her sexual fantasy. The audience is requested to send fantasy text messages which are also projected on screen.

The show, which claims to be a serious exploration about the nature of sexual fantasies, is performed by an experimental Spanish theatre troupe, La Fura dels Baus, which helped to choreograph the opening of the Barcelona Olympics in 1992.

The Catalan group has toured XXX in Spain, France and Italy and is due to open the show at the Arts Council-funded Riverside Studios in Hammersmith, west London, next month for a four-week run.

Yesterday, the Metropolitan Police said its Clubs and Vice Squad had viewed a video of XXX submitted by the theatre. A spokesman said: "We could find no evidence of any criminal offence. The sex is simulated, there is no actual penetration."

However, officers, who are uncertain whether they are dealing with an over-enthusiastic theatre trying to whip up box office interest or performances that may break the law, are expected to attend early performances of the show.

"The video may be one thing and what happens on stage may be another," said a source.

Riverside Studios, one of London's top fringe venues, will ban under 18s from admission.

William Burdett-Coutts, the studio's artistic director denied that he was staging the show just to shock. He said it was a "challenging" piece of work and "a change from the endless repetitions of Shakespeare in British theatres".

He added: "It is very, very graphic, probably the most explicit, shocking thing ever seen in a British theatre, and we thought very long and hard about putting it on. I talked to the board and the staff before deciding to go ahead. It makes Romans in Britain look a bit like a tea party.

"The whole point of it is that it makes you think about what is acceptable and about fantasies and about what you believe in."

The Catalan show is based on de Sade's novel, Philosophy of the Bedroom, and is the story of a young girl enticed by a dominatrix into making a porno-snuff movie. The girl is pushed so far that she ends up arranging the gang rape of her own mother.

One British critic who has seen XXX on the Continent said that "the final scenes of rape and mutilation are unwatchable".

Abril 2003