Post by Steve on May 14, 2017 10:26:52 GMT
Saw this last night, and really enjoyed it.
This is a monologue by "an anonymous woman," detailing her sexual fantasies and masturbation practices, read by "an unprepared man."
You don't know who you are getting until the reader announces himself, though the Royal Court has announced the following list of readers:
"Will Adamsdale, Rob Beckett, Danny Brown, Adam Buxton, Nick Frost, Phill Jupitus, Miles Jupp, Funmbi Otomayo, John-Luke Roberts, Sunil Patel, Romesh Ranganathan, Arthur Smith, Mark Thomas, Thom Tuck, Phil Wang and Liam Williams."
If I had been given a choice, I would have booked for Will Adamsdale, who I adored in "Detroit" at the Cottesloe, or Mark Thomas, whose outraged takedowns of political chicanery I have found relentlessly amusing.
Some spoilers follow. . .
Last night, we got retired stand-up and budding playwright, Liam Williams, who did such a superb job of reading the monologue, investing it with ease, emotion, authority and good timing, that suspicious minds might have suspected him of sneaking in and buying the playtext, which is on sale at the Court, in advance. Then again, William's debut play, "Travesty," featured a woman playing a man and a man playing a woman, so perhaps it was to be expected that he'd be uniquely at ease as a vessel for a woman's words.
The words were wonderfully frank and engaging. How does a person negotiate the discord between who one fantasises about and who one is actually with? Why do more men masturbate than women? Which fantasies are most likely to get you off in 5 minutes? The most degrading are the hottest, obviously, which is evidently why Murdoch crony and post-facts bullsh*t artist, Michael Gove cropped up as a fantasy figure in Anonymous' quick-release fantasy palette.
The play, and it's presentation, is fascinating on many levels, and it had my mind racing through all sorts of things. Is this story true? Is this written by a woman? Does that matter? Are there any pertinent differences between men's and women's fantasies anyway? Where do bisexuality and homosexuality fit into this somewhat binary picture of men's and women's fantasies? What difference does it make that a man is reading this? Do I privilege male voices? Why are the men on the list of readers mostly stand-ups? Who could read this so I related to it most? Who could read it so I laughed the loudest? Why does the writer want to be anonymous? Is she a coward? Is she protecting her husband and/or previous partners from ridicule? Is she protecting her professional reputation? Is the writer Phoebe Waller Bridge?
In answer to the last question, probably not. Phoebe Waller Bridge is braver than any man, or woman for that matter, when it comes to confronting these sorts of issues, and has said much more potentially embarrassing things publicly than the mildly masochistic fantasies we get here, besides which, she is a Soho Theatre artist, rather than the Royal Court artist the author is supposed to be.
Anya Reiss? Too young?
Penelope Skinner? Well, in "The Village Bike," also at the Royal Court Upstairs, Romola Garai's character was a lot like this author, exploring masturbation and porn and fantasies and danger, so can't be ruled out lol.
The fun is not knowing, of course.
And also the fun is the frankness of the fantasies. There is a huge ring of universal truth to the mundane tawdriness of the repetitive sexual fantasies that we hear about here. There are laughs of recognition from both men and women about how such fantasies interplay with real life relationships.
The man-woman thing may be essentially a red herring, as NOBODY really likes fessing up to their sexual fantasies in public. The phwoar page-3 superficial vision of men's supposed fantasies is, I suspect, mostly a front for a masculinity that masks, rather than expresses, it's true sexual fantasies. It may even be, that contrary to the suggestion of this show, that women, more than men, have generally been more honest and open about their actual fantasies in the public realm.
Then again, all the walkouts last night were WOMEN, so anecdotally, that is evidence that women, more than men, find public discussion of intimate issues objectionable. That bolsters this play's thesis that more women than men need masturbatory encouragement to enjoy themselves.
In any event, a show that works on so many levels, and promotes so much chit chat about so many topics, is great stuff.
4 stars
This is a monologue by "an anonymous woman," detailing her sexual fantasies and masturbation practices, read by "an unprepared man."
You don't know who you are getting until the reader announces himself, though the Royal Court has announced the following list of readers:
"Will Adamsdale, Rob Beckett, Danny Brown, Adam Buxton, Nick Frost, Phill Jupitus, Miles Jupp, Funmbi Otomayo, John-Luke Roberts, Sunil Patel, Romesh Ranganathan, Arthur Smith, Mark Thomas, Thom Tuck, Phil Wang and Liam Williams."
If I had been given a choice, I would have booked for Will Adamsdale, who I adored in "Detroit" at the Cottesloe, or Mark Thomas, whose outraged takedowns of political chicanery I have found relentlessly amusing.
Some spoilers follow. . .
Last night, we got retired stand-up and budding playwright, Liam Williams, who did such a superb job of reading the monologue, investing it with ease, emotion, authority and good timing, that suspicious minds might have suspected him of sneaking in and buying the playtext, which is on sale at the Court, in advance. Then again, William's debut play, "Travesty," featured a woman playing a man and a man playing a woman, so perhaps it was to be expected that he'd be uniquely at ease as a vessel for a woman's words.
The words were wonderfully frank and engaging. How does a person negotiate the discord between who one fantasises about and who one is actually with? Why do more men masturbate than women? Which fantasies are most likely to get you off in 5 minutes? The most degrading are the hottest, obviously, which is evidently why Murdoch crony and post-facts bullsh*t artist, Michael Gove cropped up as a fantasy figure in Anonymous' quick-release fantasy palette.
The play, and it's presentation, is fascinating on many levels, and it had my mind racing through all sorts of things. Is this story true? Is this written by a woman? Does that matter? Are there any pertinent differences between men's and women's fantasies anyway? Where do bisexuality and homosexuality fit into this somewhat binary picture of men's and women's fantasies? What difference does it make that a man is reading this? Do I privilege male voices? Why are the men on the list of readers mostly stand-ups? Who could read this so I related to it most? Who could read it so I laughed the loudest? Why does the writer want to be anonymous? Is she a coward? Is she protecting her husband and/or previous partners from ridicule? Is she protecting her professional reputation? Is the writer Phoebe Waller Bridge?
In answer to the last question, probably not. Phoebe Waller Bridge is braver than any man, or woman for that matter, when it comes to confronting these sorts of issues, and has said much more potentially embarrassing things publicly than the mildly masochistic fantasies we get here, besides which, she is a Soho Theatre artist, rather than the Royal Court artist the author is supposed to be.
Anya Reiss? Too young?
Penelope Skinner? Well, in "The Village Bike," also at the Royal Court Upstairs, Romola Garai's character was a lot like this author, exploring masturbation and porn and fantasies and danger, so can't be ruled out lol.
The fun is not knowing, of course.
And also the fun is the frankness of the fantasies. There is a huge ring of universal truth to the mundane tawdriness of the repetitive sexual fantasies that we hear about here. There are laughs of recognition from both men and women about how such fantasies interplay with real life relationships.
The man-woman thing may be essentially a red herring, as NOBODY really likes fessing up to their sexual fantasies in public. The phwoar page-3 superficial vision of men's supposed fantasies is, I suspect, mostly a front for a masculinity that masks, rather than expresses, it's true sexual fantasies. It may even be, that contrary to the suggestion of this show, that women, more than men, have generally been more honest and open about their actual fantasies in the public realm.
Then again, all the walkouts last night were WOMEN, so anecdotally, that is evidence that women, more than men, find public discussion of intimate issues objectionable. That bolsters this play's thesis that more women than men need masturbatory encouragement to enjoy themselves.
In any event, a show that works on so many levels, and promotes so much chit chat about so many topics, is great stuff.
4 stars
