Written by Iris Warren and directed by Izabella Day, this is a cry from the heart against sexual violence and misogyny.
It’s also oddly structured.
There are three strands.
One strand is a series of scenes of comic realism. We witness the small chat between three high school girls, played by Natasha Pearson, Roisin Wallace-Nash and Warren. It’s funny, beautifully performed and wonderfully truthful. Perhaps there’s a little too much talk about sex (and there is the obligatory condom-on-the-dildo PDHPE exercise) but all this is thematically driven. Apart from being great fun, these scenes emphasise the girls’ innocence.
Another of the strands is a series of scenes of heightened language in which two of the young women look back – on their girlhood, and on its terrible ending. There’s regret at the loss of youthful simplicity. There’s historical references to Caesar’s crossing of the Rubicon and to the 1989 Montreal massacre of women. There’s musings on Fate, toyed with as an explanation of the inevitability of the change from girlhood to womanhood, but ultimately dismissed if it’s to be employed as an excuse for misogyny.
Between (and during) these two types of scenes we are shown, via projection, some of the violent lunacy written on incel forums. (I didn’t feel at all privileged to be given such glimpses into the smallest and darkest chambers of the diseased human heart… but perhaps some audience members need to see this sort of filth. Regardless, the creative choice allows for an explanation of the title: femoid is an incel neologism; combining female and android, it denies women their humanity.)
By the piece’s conclusion, we get clarification of what has occurred between the two dramatic time frames, between the two different series of performed scenes. Curiously, there’s only the smallest hint of an overlap between the two worlds: the men referred to in the school girls’ world are not presented as incels; and there’s no suggestion that anyone they knew is responsible for the horror that has unfolded.
At the simplest level, the piece is an outraged, bewildered reaction to sexual violence.
And there’s an extra element of misery. By the end, the young women have begun to echo the incels’ belligerent, martial language. Of course, every piece of theatre can’t be expected to offer a solution; sometimes it’s enough to record the trauma – which this powerfully does.
Paul Gilchrist
Femoid by Iris Warren
presented by Vixen Theatre Company
at the Old Fitz (as a Late Show) until 10 April
Image by SMW Photography
Theatre Red 