FringeReview Scotland 2025
Gobbling Market
Chao-Ying Rao (Femme Castratrice)
Genre: Fringe Theatre, Installation Theatre, Solo Performance
Venue: Centre for Contemporary Arts.
Festival: FringeReview Scotland
Low Down
A solo performance delivered in the midst of a sumptuous feast of food. Narratively we are taken back to the very first Bank Holiday, Crystal Palace in London and the exploitative Opium Wars, and the Barnum like Gobbling Market of excess and Victoriana with Chao-Ying Rao (Femme Castratrice) guiding us through physically and with the spoken word a visually exploitative and provocative performance of poise. Technically a visual feast, literally a challenging watch.
Review
I arrived in the performance space and was instantly awkward. What I faced was the sight of a young woman, mainly naked but with modesty covering part of her anatomy, delicately poised atop a lazy Susan. As it spun, she struck a number of physically challenging poses whilst verbally tip toing around the imperial nature of our past and it effect upon China. Towards the end she delved into bowls of noodles and food and began to use them to dress herself like the dish of contemporary culture which is housed within the terrible history of the way in which the west exploited the east in the past.
Food reminded me just exactly how far we have not come in an understanding of our responsibility for the humiliation we dealt to the Chinese. This was billed as sweeter than honey and stronger than wine and it had clear connections to the geopolitics of the time and of now. We have discussed our responsibilities towards the fields of Jamaica, and the villages of Africa, but have we reflected upon the Opium Wars in China?
It was an interesting way of attending to the delicate topic and done in such a radical manner. As a performer, Chao-Ying Rao manages to entertain and engage, making eye contact to continue that feeling of being in an awkward position.
The costume was see-through and with modesty protected at least for part of the body. This was comfortable enough because most of us are used to nudity and it was an adult audience, but it was also discomforting because I wondered whether the nudity was there for any reason apart from to just make us feel voyeuristic. The poses with the nudity came close to putting me off completely but once the story began, I became gripped.
It was perhaps the spinning of their body whilst their dexterity and ability to manage poise and grace while both kneeling and standing on this functional lazy Susan meant that we had a consistently revolving idea without us ever having to move, asking us to change metaphorical if not a physical position.
It allowed me to confront the idea of our responsibility of not just opening doors and welcoming people in but our responsibility over what we left behind.
It was a provocative performance that managed to engage and challenge in equal measure. Standing in a city built upon the backs of slavery and tobacco and ironically somewhere where opium has a grip, with innovative attempts in Glasgow to sort out our opiate use being trialled, it seems we have not escaped legacy either in terms of our history nor in terms of our reality. Femme Castratrice provokes like a mirror, bouncing back our fetishistic imagery of her and asking questions we would not associate with our prejudicial view of her – and that made this work so well.
