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Latest items? Unedited? Fringe Report Uncut
The Secret Gardeners
Verdict: Post-feminist female gender identity cabaret
The Secret Gardeners is a one-hour comedy cabaret show featuring Cara Jennings, Jemma Freudenberg Morphet, Josie Stuart. The title refers to the classic feminist text My Secret Garden - the theme of the show is post-feminist female gender identity.
It disproves the idea that feminists have no sense of humour. The opening song Oh Greer, Oh Greer - a wry tribute to the author Germaine Greer - celebrates the versatility and autonomy of 21st century women, as compared to the political and dogmatic pioneers of feminism in the 1960s and 70s. The hilarious finale is the polar opposite - a braggadocio declaration of love by an archetypal IT nerd for the first woman to speak to him (she needed her printer cartridge changed).
But this show is not just another facile exercise in women-are-powerful / men-are-needy female self-affirmation. The depiction of men as self-important and ridiculous appears to be a comment on what also lies just beneath the surface of socially-constructed feminine self-confidence.
The show reveals a charming sexual frankness and comfort level in the performers. Between the start and finish are sketches and songs that lampoon modern society’s various exemplars of powerful womanhood. Topics include dogging, politician chicks, TV news announcers, radical lesbians, tennis sex goddesses, belly buttons with more personality than their owners, home schooling mums, angry teen girl bands (a band called Angry Girls At-ya, with an especially fun number called Open Fire — this band should go on tour), and women involved in masturbatory relationships with their own handbags.
And then there are some sketches which are off-topic and just for fun: Bullfighting for Beginners, Ordering a Roman, and others. All manage to touch a raw nerve.
Cast Credits: (alpha order and with the cast's own descriptions): Cara Jennings (dark hair/shorter). Jemma Freudenberg Morphet (dark hair/taller). Josie Stuart (blonde).
Company Credits: Written and devised by (alpha order) – Cara Jennings, Jemma Freudenberg Morphet, Josie Stuart. Technical Operator - Ross Mc Givern. Canal Café Theatre: Technical Director - Ross Mc Givern. Acting Artistic Director - Louis Brownhill. Artistic Director - Emma Taylor. The Bridge House: Manager - Tracy Allum.
END
(c) Brad Hall 2005
reviewed 3 November 05 / Canal Café Theatre
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012
www.fringereport.com
