Stoya to Make Stage Debut in NY Play 'Harakiri Kane'

NEW YORK—"Noted pornographer" (as the show notes describe her) Stoya ventures onto the venerated New York stage in the currently-in-rehearsal Harakiri Kane (aka Die! Die, Again!), coming to Brooklyn's The Brick theater October 29-November 20. Written by Emmy Award winner Dean Haspiel and directed by Ian W. Hill, the play is described as "An existential noir about love, life, death, and the dregs of immortality." As its synopsis elaborates, "Harry Kane is a reluctant angel of death with amnesia who uncovers the truth of his mortal demise and tries to beat death at its own game only to fall in love with its most prized acolyte [Stoya] before choosing whether to live forever as an immortal specter or die, again, an honest man." "Dean Haspiel about a year and a half ago illustrated one of my essays for Heavy Metal magazine, and we enjoyed working together quite a bit, so he sent me the screenplay that he was turning into an actual play and asked if I would take a look at it," Stoya told AVN. "We did a live reading of it about a year ago, just to get feedback from people who pay attention to plays and stuff, and then we started rehearsals maybe a week and a half ago. "It opens at the end of October, so I'm not nervous at all, right?" she added with a laugh. "I have a monologue that's over a page long." Though this will hardly be Stoya's first time performing before a live audience, it will in fact mark her first time doing so in a thespian capacity. "I've done dancing stuff, and I've done burlesquey circus stuff," she said, "but you don't have to talk or act with those. And then I've done lots of porno ... so my acting experience in this area is less than thin." Nevertheless, she said she feels confident she's in good hands with director Hill. "I trust Dean, Dean trusts the director, the director thinks I'll be fine with only rehearsals. There's a whole lot of trust going on," she quipped. "Maybe some finger crossing." Chuckling, she also noted, "I feel the need to mention that I am fully clothed throughout the entire play. Just so nobody comes expecting one thing and leaves disappointed." For more information and to purchase tickets for Harakiri Kane, click here. Inset photo by Linus Gelber.