Fringe 2025 Review: Stroke of Genius: Pantomime Masturbation Throughout Performing Arts History

I went into this play expecting a lot of jokes about masturbation. That expectation was met many times over, and somehow there was still time for Stroke of Genius to deliver so much more.

As advertised, the play is presented in the format of a university lecture, using a laser pointer and a slideshow. Shane Mayforth occasionally calls on audience members to raise their hands or call out answers to questions, addressing the audience as “students”.

What starts as a historical overview of erections and masturbation as depicted in art dating back thousands of years — incidentally, a lecture I would enthusiastically attend — swerves into more surreal territory as the professor begins to present silent film clips. These have been created for this play, and feature a fictional vaudeville actor (played by Vulva Va-Voom) whose specialty was pantomime masturbation sketches. Both the sheer variety of scenarios and the production value of the clips are quite impressive.

The best comedy also includes social commentary, and a variety of topics are covered here. There’s a sincere lament about the skewing of the historical record to highlight rich people, and how few artefacts from the lives of poor or working class people survive. The role of universities as gatekeepers of what fields are deemed to be legitimate pursuits of study and the difficulty of conducting research without being beholden to funders come up, and there’s even a brief discussion of the challenges of talking about influential works of art which present offensive or harmful messages.

I attend Fringe specifically to see unique, creative performances that I could never see on any other stage, and Stroke of Genius is a quintessential Fringe show in that respect. I’d recommend it to anyone who enjoys diving into a weird theatre experience with an open mind — and of course, to anyone who like jokes about masturbation.