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Fringe Online 2020

MILF

Isadora Vibes

Genre: Fringe Online Theatre, Solo Performance

Venue: Wandsworth Arts Fringe

Festival:


Low Down

This is three separate monologues, linked by the MILF theme that has Joan who takes selfies of herself in artistically nude poses, Maggie who has had it away with a younger man – he is 28 years old BTW, and Lil who is getting ready for when a builder comes round at 4pm. Each monologue is delivered straight to camera focusing on the issues of self image, of how people may see the older woman and how flirty can you be when you have a builder in – ooh er.

Review

At the heart of each of these is a very clever idea. The execution of each, which is improvised, shows a degree of success that is to be admired. For Joan, the issues of how you should be viewed and how you view yourself is explored in a very tender and honest manner. There is no outrage or seediness but there is a simple pride coming across that warms you to the liberation of the character and I liked her a great deal. She had that confidence that comes from honesty and the authentic nature of simply being finally comfortable.

Maggie, arrived with a Scots accent that was a little too thick, and she is at the washing up – irony paying a very effective part – as she describes how she has had a night of passion with a younger man. Showing her morning face so we get her without make up we get the boldness, the brashness and the beauty of someone who is simply, on the surface at least, comfortable, this time within in her own skin.

Then we have Lil who has a builder to come. Again, I found the accent, scouse, a little laboured but there was a lot of material in here that showed both her playfulness and her need. We end with ger doing her make up for an encounter we never see but can only be left wondering about – again I really liked that.

The performance, by Isadora Vibes, a resident of Bristol of creative note was a highly nuanced piece that challenged me greatly – and that was to be welcomed. Filmed directly to camera it is a  performance piece I would have enjoyed within a theatre more as I wanted the intimacy of being challenged directly. It lost a little in its translation but still left me questioning, as a man in my fifties, what my attitudes are towards women and gender. I may have shifted slightly or not really but rather than being uncomfortable I felt like I had suddenly grown just by being the silent partner in the conversation.

As theatre it therefore managed to reach across the internet divide and engage my brain in a way that I wish others would in terms of sexuality and gender. I would not hesitate in seeking her out or the group DADA for Girls to continue my education.

Published

Show Website

Dada for Girls