Rachel Frost tells her audience that she has always been “curious and sexual.” This curiosity carries her from a conservative upbringing, through buying her first thong at Wet Seal, and eventually into the glittering, dark, scintillating world of stripping. Lapdog is presented as a confessional piece, written after Frost admits she had lied to friends, family, and even her therapist about how she supported herself as a 26-year-old “unemployed actress” living in New York.
Frost’s presence on stage is magnetic, and her storytelling brims with unflinching honesty. She admits to having “relished the male gaze” throughout her life — a central conflict of the show, introduced when she compares her choice of a risqué thong with the more modest purchase of her best friend, Courtney. This friendship becomes a clever narrative device, showing how Frost’s curious, impulsive nature often set her apart, while also revealing her unreliability as a narrator in ways best left unspoiled for future audiences.
Though Frost is witty, her fast-paced, quippy delivery sometimes rushes past punchlines before the audience can fully respond, meaning the moments of comedy often give way to the show’s more dramatic tones. Yet this tonal uncertainty strengthens the piece, reflecting Frost’s inner conflict between external expectations and her own desires.
Lapdog does not romanticise sex work. Frost recounts the discomfort of her first lap dance and describes stripping as a craft that required time, skill, and the invention of a persona before it became rewarding. A striking highlight arrives with her pole performance, a triumphant moment that showcases her eventual confidence and physical prowess.
By the end, Frost offers no neat resolution about her time stripping. She recognises it as “a job like any other,” never glamourising the burden of secrecy it placed upon her life, but sharing the hard-won wisdom it left behind.
Lapdog is a candid, stylish, and thought-provoking piece of confessional theatre, carried by Frost’s remarkable stage presence.
The show ran until 24 August at Just The Sub-Atomic Room at Just the Tonic Nucleus.
More information can be found here.
Image courtesy of Lucas Miguel, provided to The Student as press material.
