Colchester Fringe Festival 2024
Low Down
What if femininity? A question posed and stereotypes punctured.
Review
What is femininity? From Sakai. Japan, comes this absorbing piece that looks at, and demolishes, images and constructions of femininity, exploring myths around the “ideal” Japanese woman, her place in society, and her own desires and wishes. In a Japanese society where the obedient wife and mother is still a highly prized virtue, where the gender gap appears wider than in the UK, how does a woman grow and attend to her own “flowers”? In a country culturally defined by fragile, tender ceremonial tea parties, martial arts and technology, how does the human side of being a woman emerge? It’s a precise, beautiful and tender piece, thought provoking and visually stunning.
Much of this is to with performer Sayu Arakawa, whose physicality is mesmerising. Delicate steps, precise movement in a tea party ceremony are overthrown every time she walks behind the central screen. Literally throwing the kimono robes away, she emerges as a martial arts wonder women, a lap dancer, a nun, the audience never sure who will present. Plastic surgery and augmentation are lampooned, and a male voice over constantly tells her she is wrong, and makes is clear what is NOT considered feminine by her society. In a highly effective sequence, Sayu is a ballerina, exhausting herself trying to keep dancing as the music plays over and over, moulding her face into a fake smile, something she does throughout. She has excellent stage presence, connecting strongly with the audience.
Produced by theatre company GUMBO, the piece has been created after taking part in the 2023 Colchester Fringe Festival and observing equality and behaviour in our society. Director Kayo Tamura has crafted a thoughtful, impassive world premiere, with superb choreography, and the soundtrack is in perfect synergy with each section. It has much to say about gender division and construction, not just in Japanese society, but here in the UK, where stereotypes are still constructed through patriarchal lenses.
