This fresh-faced company of actors, straight out of the National Youth Theatre are a marvellous inspiration for aspiring actors and women.
A Womb of One’s Own is a new piece of writing (Claire Rammelkamp) that will attract a young audience with its themes of coming of age, sex and sexuality, and abortion. Plugging key facts such as ‘1 in 3 women in the UK have abortions’, and asking questions like ‘Where are all the abortion clinics?’ and ‘Why isn’t anyone talking about this?’, the writing touches on some challenging topics with enthusiastic actors showing us how young women’s sexual health can be side-lined by society.
The writing did ebb and flow in places, and a few misplaced moments of comedy and awkwardness sometimes made for an unsure audience.
Nerves did appear to get the better of a couple of this youthful bunch, and a few lines were lost to over enthusiasm and a quick pace, but Carla Garratt shone throughout and gave the most consistent performance.
The venue (The Space on the Isle of Dogs) is an intimate one and the bubbly cafe attached gave it some good vibes which were fitting for the piece. The lighting and set (Olivia Early) were basic yet effective.
Overall a great production with a few hiccups owing to nerves and writing. At 60 minutes it was a fast paced piece in which a little too much was packed in a little too tightly. Overall 3 stars for these up and coming artists.
“A great show in terms of individual performances and musical talent”
Grab Em’ By The Pussy is a comedy musical. It explores a young girl’s sexual awakening and the confusing and at times bizarre relationship society draws between sex, consent and desirability resulting in the normalisation of sexual harassment. Written by Caroline Buckley and directed by Bence Kalo, the production was comical and raised some interesting questions and perspectives.
Alice Wolff-Whitehouse who played the protagonist Maisie, provided a sincere and honest performance; the character was misguided yet relatable. She successfully portrayed the objectification young girls feel, and the peer pressure they are under, when experimenting with how to conduct themselves around men.
The acting was strong across the cast if not at times slightly exaggerated, although this could have been due to the tongue in cheek musical style. Alasdair Melrose stood out playing the awkward love-sick suitor. The music, composed by Josh Wells fitted perfectly with the excellent vocal arrangement. Some of the songs were comical and raucous and demonstrated the performers’ strong vocal ability.
Unfortunately, at times, I felt the message was misconstrued by bizarre interludes and I was often lost. The production seemed to tackle too many issues and character threads and often lost sight of the message by veering off on strange tangents. The issues delved into during the performance were important and at times well communicated, but I felt the absurd nature of some scenes detracted from the production’s aim.
A great show in terms of individual performances and musical talent but it did not quite reach the point it was trying to make.
Reviewed by Olivia Ellison
GRAB ‘EM BY THE PUSSY
is at The Space until 16th July and at The Monkey House as part of Camden Fringe from the 9th to 12th August
