Artist’s explicit ‘sex cave’ show WON’T pay back £31,000 of taxpayer costs
TAXPAYERS will not see more than £31,000 in cash given to an explicit sex show after the government quango said the cash was “contractually legitimate”.
Creative Scotland previously said they would stop funding the Rein Project and had recovered more than £76,000 from the production which planned to include a “secret sex cave party”.
Artist Leonie Rae Gasson was awarded more than £107,000 in total in lottery cash to develop and perform the show.
Concerns were raised after the show tried to recruit actors to participate in "hardcore" sex scenes and to play "lovers frolicking in long grass".
They would have been paid £270 a day to take part in "non-simulated" romps.
An ad encouraged applications from people with sex work experience, "particularly in porn contexts".
In a letter to Holyrood’s Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee, Creative Scotland’s chief executive Iain Munro said the funding had been given on the belief the project would include “simulated” sex.
He said the “track record” of the applicant was a “strong one” and the project had been supported “in the knowledge” it would have “strong sexual themes and simulated sexual performance, and would speak to a particular audience rather than the mainstream.”
Mr Munro added: “However, as became clear in March 2024 when the project team developed new content for their website and publicised that as part of a call-out for participants, one new and significant difference emerged which took the project into unacceptable territory.
“That was the intention to include real sex, as opposed to performance depicting simulated sex, in the work.
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“This represented a significant change to the approved project, moving it from ‘performance’ into actuality, and into a space that was, in Creative Scotland’s view, inappropriate for public funding.”
The quango boss said a review was underway about its handling of funding applications, and he admitted £31,479 would not be recovered.
This included £23,120 from costs to develop the project, and £8,359 in cash already spent but which was considered “contractually legitimate”.
£76,196 has been “recovered”, Mr Munro added, around 90 per cent of the total funding award of £84,555 for the second stage of the project.
He also claimed people involved in the show, along with Creative Scotland staff, had received “threats and abuse” and “highly discriminatory” comments.
Mr Munro said this meant the quango would be seeking legal advice before publishing any further information or copies of the original application.