Hollywood Fringe 2016
Strap-on
Proboscis Theatre Company
Genre: Drama, Physical Theatre, Theatre, Verbatim Theatre
Venue: Lounge
Festival: Hollywood Fringe
Low Down
True story of salacious British court case.
Review
Proboscis Theatre Company, of Santa Barbara, brought two offerings to the Hollywood Fringe this year; the one-woman show “Bloody Beautiful” and this two-hander about a British court case in which a female student (Gayle Newland) was charged with sexual assault when her (female) lover of two years claimed she had always believed her to be a man.
The piece starts with the two girls doing a ritualized dance, one is blind-folded, the other wears a strap-on penis. This was my third fake penis of the fringe, but the first to get the title-role.
We hear the varying versions of how the deception/roleplay started through verbatim court testimony, plus some wholly invented scenes. Are these girls using their new-found freedom to experiment with their sexuality, or was there always sinister intent to deceive?
Erica Flor plays Gayle and her male alter-ego Kye; a persona she’d invented years previously on-line so she could chat to girls. Her swift transitions between genders become like dance-moves. There is a timidity to Gayle, so you believe that she sometimes has to call in Kye for support.
Madelyn Rose does more conventional double-duty as the alleged victim and a court official. Both actresses also play versions of themselves, weighing up the evidence and questioning each new revelation.
The piece was devised and written by the performers plus director Jeff Mills. The style of the piece is very strong, all the movement is almost dance; assured and well-rehearsed.
Some of the Englishy dialogue could have been better researched (we don’t call the things that hold our pants up “suspenders”) and there were some strangely deployed slang terms but the accents were good enough for Hollywood.
There is something a bit Jerry Springer about the story. If the case had happened in America perhaps it would seem just sordid and not worthy of a show with such high artistic ambitions.
The piece draws no clear conclusions and makes no judgments (although we learn that Newland was jailed for eight years for the offence) inviting the audience to draw their own conclusions.
Gayle is the more sympathetic character, wishing she could win the heart of her flighty friend without having to be anything but herself. But you also feel something for the confused alleged victim, even if this was just a role-play that got out-of-hand, and neither girl had the necessary skills or safe-words to extract themselves.
A bold and interesting play with strong performances from both actresses. Recommended.
