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The grubby goings-on in the offices of glossy magazines are thoroughly explored in Red Stitch鈥檚 final play for 2013, UK writer Lucy Kirkwood鈥檚 NSFW (Not Safe For Work).

Actor Matthew Whitty plays Sam, an intern starting on the bottom rung of sleazy lad鈥檚 mag Doghouse.

As in the real world, in NSFW these tawdry magazines are a dying breed, and Doghouse editor Aiden is beginning to get desperate in his attempts to boost circulation.

鈥淵ou find out pretty soon that their rivals have just closed down, and they鈥檙e really on their knees too. They鈥檙e not only fighting against technological advancements, but an economic downturn as well,鈥� Whitty told the 17c起草社区.

In an effort to drum up publicity – and sales – Aiden charges his team to find a new amateur page three girl from amongst their readership. Before long, journalism degree graduate Sam finds his job is by and large 鈥渏udging tit-shots鈥�.

鈥淭here are no complaints because with the world the way it is at the moment: coming out of uni in the UK, you take what you can get. Not everyone is writing front page for the Guardian, although you would love to be. For many of the people at Doghouse, their job is all that was available for them.鈥�

When the page-three campaign backfires spectacularly, Sam seeks refuge in what he assumes will be a more dignified workplace – a fictional women鈥檚 magazine called Electra. However, attending his first job interview, he soon realises that Doghouse and Electra aren鈥檛 necessarily all that different.

鈥淚t鈥檚 interesting, because you get to see where the differences are and where the continuity is between a men鈥檚 and a women鈥檚 magazine – how the two respective worlds treat women. Things like respectfulness, acceptance of women鈥檚 bodies – the two magazines have more in common than he might have thought. When they鈥檝e got pictures of women every week with their cellulite circled, how does that affect the everyday woman?鈥�

Whitty admitted the Red Stitch rehearsal room had been a flurry of trash mags in recent weeks – all for research purposes, of course. Director Tanya Dickson had brought a stack of the UK鈥檚 dodgiest glossies home from a recent trip, and the cast had also sought out journalists who鈥檝e worked in tabloid media and have since written about their experiences.

And where do we leave Sam by play鈥檚 end? Perhaps a career change is in order after such a bumpy entrance into the world of magazine publishing?

鈥淚鈥檓 sure he鈥檇 love to go live on a farm somehwere, but how viable is that? It鈥檚 a very realistic play, and idealism can only get you so far in the world,鈥� Whitty sighed.