Tag Archives: Ovalhouse

Rejoicing at her Wondrous Vulva
★★★★★

Ovalhouse

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Rejoicing at her Wondrous Vulva

Rejoicing at her Wondrous Vulva the Young Woman Applauded Herself

Ovalhouse

Reviewed – 13th May 2019

★★★★★

 

“will no doubt provide every viewer with a new perspective on the world”

 

Rejoicing At Her Wondrous Vulva The Young Woman Applauded Herself is a frank exploration of female sexuality, self-love and patriarchal expectations directed by Donnacadh O’Briain. Brain/Ego (Bella Heesom) and Clitoris/Appetite (Sara Alexander) battle it out for top spot in the female protagonist’s sex life while the former slowly beats the second into societal submission. The clitoris does not understand why she is seen as dirty and disgusting while the brain also often struggles to comprehend the flawed cultural logic she applies to her own sexual desire.

The play explores snippets of the young woman’s sexual growth from discovering masturbation to entering an unfulfilling relationship with a man who sees her as nothing more than a sex object. The protagonist learns that her sexuality and pleasure are embarrassing at a young age when schoolboys laugh at the idea of performing oral sex on a girl. Familiar phrases about female sexuality periodically flash up on a screen at the back of the stage – Virginity is precious. Vaginas are dirty. Sex is for men.

The play is interspersed with scenes of graceful movement (Liz Ranken) in which Alexander nudges and bites at Heesom as if a lioness. This theme is expanded in a meditation led by Alexander during the show where she uses the raw animalism and beauty of the lioness as an analogy for female sexuality. The screen at the back of the stage too shows the face of a lioness to emphasise this.

After the performance, Heesom and Alexander invite the audience to attend an open discussion to reflect on the issues raised in the play. The experiences enacted in the piece are revealed to be near universal amongst the female audience from being told vaginas smell like fish to feeling the need to satisfy a partner on a special occasion. Heesom and Alexander handle the group conversation with great care and sensitivity, and it is an appreciated and moving addition to the show.

The set (Elizabeth Harper) is well considered and helps to emphasise how natural female sexuality is. Heesom and Alexander move around a beautiful (lady) garden with flowers and plants hanging from the ceiling. The screen shows animated flowers growing and dying to reflect the revelations made on stage. The ground is covered in dark pebbles and a rectangular pool of water runs along the back of the stage. A wooden swing hangs in the back-left corner and reminds the audience that these harmful ideas about female sexuality are fed to us since childhood.

Heesom and Alexander are both stars and their chemistry is incredible. The two women move effortlessly between witty back and forth as Brain and Clitoris to sensual moments wrestling on the ground. Heesom’s final speech as the societally battered Clitoris is particularly powerful as she strips off her clothes and attacks the patriarchal constructs that have made female sexuality shameful. Rejoicing At Her Wondrous Vulva The Young Woman Applauded Herself will no doubt provide every viewer with a new perspective on the world.

 

Reviewed by Flora Doble

Photography by David Monteith-Hodge

 

Ovalhouse

Rejoicing at her Wondrous Vulva the Young Woman Applauded Herself

Ovalhouse until 26th May

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:
Medea Electronica | ★★★ | January 2018
Random Selfies | ★★★ | March 2018
This Restless State | ★★★ | March 2018
Standard:Elite | ★★★★★ | May 2018
Austerity & Me | ★★★★ | June 2018
The Croydon Avengers | ★★★ | June 2018
Undersong | ★★★★★ | June 2018
A Pocketful of Bread | ★★★ | September 2018

 

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A Pocketful of Bread – 3 Stars

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Bread

A Pocketful of Bread

Ovalhouse

Reviewed – 10th September 2018

★★★

“has really strong ingredients across the board but struggles to create a cohesive whole”

 

Two men are asleep on the ground. The floor is littered with pebbles. In the middle of the stage is a barrel, or our well. At the bottom of the well is a white dog. The white dog has been barking since this morning. When two men discover the white dog they are outraged and cannot decide what to do. ‘A Pocketful of Bread’ is a highly topical and relevant investigation into a culture where people are quick to criticise but far slower to do anything about it, and the play is characterised by a strange and sadly recognisable combination of outrage and inaction.

The piece was originally written in Romania in 1984, though this production goes some way to modernising it. Man with Cane’s cane has been replaced by a selfie stick and their clothes are generically contemporary, however the selfie stick is used clumsily and without conviction rendering it out of place in the narrative. More focus on confidently drawing these contemporary parallels is necessary, or alternatively allowing the evident relevance of the words to suffice and creating a timeless setting for the play.

Matel Visniec’s writing, translated and adapted by Gabriel Mansour, Ana Nanu and Anne-Sophie Marie is beautiful, at moments bordering on the poetic. It is delivered by two very assured performances by Ross Mullan and Gabriel Mansour. Mullan brings a wonderful energy to the play, and Mansour’s brooding manner feels particularly appropriate to the narrative.

This play has really strong ingredients across the board but struggles to create a cohesive whole. It seems to jump between genres, drama, farce, surrealism in a way that makes these changes feel jarring. Finding more humour and surrealism early on, which could possibly be accessed via pace, would ensure these transitions do not take us out of the play world, and the play as a whole would have a much stronger impact. Furthermore an earlier introduction of surrealism would make it easier to accept the many unanswered questions such as why these men are both here, whose dog this is, why they begin the play asleep then sleep alongside each other later in the piece. Establishing a sense of absurdity early on would allow for more flexibility to play with these questions, without the onus being placed on finding an answer. The ending, however, is beautiful, simple and inexplicable.

‘A Pocketful of Bread’ is a really promising piece, well delivered, and beautifully written that needs to spend some time playing with genre in a more cohesive way.

 

Reviewed by Amelia Brown

Photography by Nikki Wills

 


A Pocketful of Bread

Ovalhouse until 13th September

 

 

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