The journey of Woman | Women (2024) and my ambition to build a show about the social and private dynamics of lesbian relationships is driven not only by my 20 years of romantic relationships with women, and the reflections and questions I have about my own experience, and theirs, but I also have a continued desire to unpack lesbianism from an academic and artistic perspective and to fill the visibly marked gap on physical work on lesbianism.
Early in my career, even before I was thinking about my previous acclaimed show on common issues gay women face, Barely Visible (2021), I have artist journal entries stating how “I wanted to celebrate love between two women on stage” or how “two women physically attached would be mesmerising”. I didn’t make the work at the time because, ten years ago, I wasn’t bold enough address the nuances of lesbian relationships with as much conviction as I can today, possibly because I didn’t have the knowledge, experience, and or confidence to say that lesbian relationships were anything other than loving. To offer an example to clarify – before I started researching heavily into the academic realm of lesbian interactions, and accepting them and myself as different, I probably would have presented a perfect, idealised and unrealistic version of a lesbian relationship as a message to say that lesbians are ‘normal’.
Given that I don’t feel I have to paint an unrealistic picture of lesbianism as a validation technique to fight for a space in society anymore, I am free to highlight the complexity of lesbian relationships from a very honest and authentic lens, one that considers my own experience, and that of the lesbians I have interviewed, read about and have known / know. My research and approach to staging a lesbian relationship has thus been multilayered — I started by considering traditional relationship components, such as meeting someone, measuring compatibilities, learning about each other’s attachment style, identifying healthy ways of communicating. I also considered what could cause a relationship to break down, such as infidelity, or individual growth in one of the partners.
Then, I looked at the same workings of a relationship, but with lesbian specificity. I looked at and remembered the difficulty of finding a lesbian and the carefulness it took to get it right (i.e. don’t hit on a straight woman). And, if you do get it right there is still the potential to get it wrong. An example of this is that some lesbians can harbour a scarcity mindset around the number of lesbians there is to choose from. This sense of lack can cloud a woman’s judgement when it comes to how quickly their relationship unfolds, measuring compatibility and in letting go of the person if they are not right for them. A heavier topic addressed is internalised homophobia and how subjective comfort / discomfort with identifying as a lesbian can effect the success or failure of a relationship and how a woman ‘acts’ within a within it – the acting has motivated the “academic” character I play and the mask I wear within the work.
Counting all the above, plus much more that I don’t want to give away before you see the show, I have curated a unique model for Woman | Women, whereby I work with a new performer at each of the three upcoming shows of Woman | Women. Each performer has worked within the same pre-set structure, but has approached it differently, from their lens, their energy, their subjectivity, and their brilliance. They are all amazing and I will be announcing them in more detail in the coming weeks.
JOIN US!!!
Jessica Huckerby will perform with me at
The Arts Centre, Ormskirk, 7:30pm 7th November 2024.
TICKETS: https://www.edgehill.ac.uk/event/woman-women/
Elinor Randle will perform with me at
Unity Theatre, Liverpool, 8pm, 15th November 2024 (including a curtain raiser performance at 7:30pm by local LGBT performers).
TICKETS: https://www.unitytheatreliverpool.co.uk/whats-on/woman-women/
Lily Antonia will perform with me at
Shakespeare North Playhouse, Prescot, 2pm & 7pm, 30th November 2024.
Ticket link to Shakespeare North Playhouse – https://shakespearenorthplayhouse.co.uk/event/woman-women/
Huge thank you to Arts Council England for supporting this project and for partners Pole Purpose, 24 Hope Street and Unity Theatre. Also big thanks to initial funders, Leap Dance Festival and Culture Liverpool. This would not be possible without you.