Edinburgh Fringe, day 1
Aug. 18th, 2015 11:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kaberettA Matter of Life and Debt. Entertaining physical theatre, excellent use of minimal props, somewhat incoherent story but it gave the impression of being designed to showcase as many different Things Each Actor Could Do as possible... in the format of a bureaucracy montage. Think Jupiter Ascending meets Wizard of Oz (in that everything was green and occasionally velvet). I was kiiiind of uncomfortable with one scene's handling of disability and some language in general, but pleasant enough.
Le Gateau Chocolat: Black. SEE THIS IF YOU POSSIBLY CAN. I WAS CRYING BY NOT VERY FAR IN AND THEN JUST... KEPT CRYING. I INTEND TO SEE IT AGAIN BEFORE WE LEAVE IF I CAN POSSIBLY SWING IT. Pro tip: the level-access entrance to this venue is up the fucking hill from the main entrance, and bears a sign which reads FIRE EXIT NO ENTRY. Autobiographical one-man cabaret; trigger warnings for racism, lynchings, gender policing, homophobia, homophobic violence, abuse, abusive relationships, sizeism, depression, suicide, and probably some other things I'm forgetting -- but it was brilliant, and it is important and it matters and on top of that it is absolutely stunningly gorgeous, and I am absolutely serious about wanting to go back and see it a second time. Or, you know, every day.
Plus two I didn't much care for, which carry all the trigger warnings. (Yes, this is a trigger warning for trigger warnings.)
K'rd Strip: A place to stand. I was super fuckin' enthusiastic about this going in, because Okareka was established to fuse contemporary dance with indigenous Māori themes and other genres to create authentic, diverse works. Led by senior performers Taane Mete and Taiaroa Royal, Okareka has become one of New Zealand’s most sought after and prolific dance companies. Plus, you know, this show was billed as queer - and the title is tūrangawaewae, a word I picked up in Te Papa several years ago and have A LOT OF FEELINGS ABOUT. Combined pop, drag and haka (excellently executed) with a whole load of misogynist and transmisogynist cisgay self-pity (and yes, it was really explicitly cis and cissexist) that thought it was progressive; the way the closing sequence went I couldn't help but interpret it as "yeah, we might be gay dudes and queens but we are still manly men who can fuck your shit up". Disappointed by it; on balance glad I saw it and was disappointed instead of having missed it and regretted so doing. Trigger warnings for, well, cissexism, misogyny, transmisogyny, the idea that all sex workers hate it and hate themselves, and graphic depiction of violent rape.
Us, Mae Martin. Stand-up. Theoretically feminist. In practice it actually managed to trigger me so badly I left before the end; it was cissexist, completely erased the entire existence of Judaism in ways that super pissed me off (the Book of Genesis has definitely only been around since the birth of Christ y'all), worked really hard to make the argument that homophobia exists because of the divisiveness of the terms "heterosexual" and "homosexual" (while simultaneously pointing out that they're relatively new coinages), and then was just... utterly horrifying about an entire topic I don't want to think about enough to explain, several times, and then I left.
Le Gateau Chocolat: Black. SEE THIS IF YOU POSSIBLY CAN. I WAS CRYING BY NOT VERY FAR IN AND THEN JUST... KEPT CRYING. I INTEND TO SEE IT AGAIN BEFORE WE LEAVE IF I CAN POSSIBLY SWING IT. Pro tip: the level-access entrance to this venue is up the fucking hill from the main entrance, and bears a sign which reads FIRE EXIT NO ENTRY. Autobiographical one-man cabaret; trigger warnings for racism, lynchings, gender policing, homophobia, homophobic violence, abuse, abusive relationships, sizeism, depression, suicide, and probably some other things I'm forgetting -- but it was brilliant, and it is important and it matters and on top of that it is absolutely stunningly gorgeous, and I am absolutely serious about wanting to go back and see it a second time. Or, you know, every day.
Plus two I didn't much care for, which carry all the trigger warnings. (Yes, this is a trigger warning for trigger warnings.)
K'rd Strip: A place to stand. I was super fuckin' enthusiastic about this going in, because Okareka was established to fuse contemporary dance with indigenous Māori themes and other genres to create authentic, diverse works. Led by senior performers Taane Mete and Taiaroa Royal, Okareka has become one of New Zealand’s most sought after and prolific dance companies. Plus, you know, this show was billed as queer - and the title is tūrangawaewae, a word I picked up in Te Papa several years ago and have A LOT OF FEELINGS ABOUT. Combined pop, drag and haka (excellently executed) with a whole load of misogynist and transmisogynist cisgay self-pity (and yes, it was really explicitly cis and cissexist) that thought it was progressive; the way the closing sequence went I couldn't help but interpret it as "yeah, we might be gay dudes and queens but we are still manly men who can fuck your shit up". Disappointed by it; on balance glad I saw it and was disappointed instead of having missed it and regretted so doing. Trigger warnings for, well, cissexism, misogyny, transmisogyny, the idea that all sex workers hate it and hate themselves, and graphic depiction of violent rape.
Us, Mae Martin. Stand-up. Theoretically feminist. In practice it actually managed to trigger me so badly I left before the end; it was cissexist, completely erased the entire existence of Judaism in ways that super pissed me off (the Book of Genesis has definitely only been around since the birth of Christ y'all), worked really hard to make the argument that homophobia exists because of the divisiveness of the terms "heterosexual" and "homosexual" (while simultaneously pointing out that they're relatively new coinages), and then was just... utterly horrifying about an entire topic I don't want to think about enough to explain, several times, and then I left.