Exploring Womanhood Through Theatre

Girl staring at a multiple pictures of a smiling mouth.

I've been going through a lot of change recently and it’s made me think about how long you have to process things before you’re ready to write about them. I have been finding it difficult to find the motivation to write amongst all the changes I have been going through, involving a move away from home, adapting to the post covid world, and also some grief. 

The theme of grief is something I didn’t feel ready to explore yet, and as I have powered on (which I’m very proud of myself for) I have thrown myself into other activities to take my mind off things and find fun and new ways to explore my time in London – where I’ve recently moved to pursue an acting degree. 

I am loving my course so far, I’m not just saying that. I don’t think I’ve ever felt to excited and comfortable in my learning before. Each class sparks something different in me and the friends I’ve made and am continuing to get to know are amazing, I love sharing work and ideas with them and hearing what they have to share also. The variation of modules and topics is also very impressive, some of which have further built upon workshops we have taken part in on the Young Playwrights Project like Verbatim Theatre with Mariem Omari. It is very interesting being able to learn about the different aspects covered in class and then to have a similar yet completely different experience in a workshop. While my acting class usually deals with texts which already exist for performance and research, in the YYP workshops we interrogate the process behind how these plays are formed. This has been really interesting and very beneficial in both my writing and work at University.

Two plays I have watched recently are It’s True It’s True It’s True by Breach Theatre and Drawing on a Mothers Experience by Bobby Baker, both had very strong messages, and both spoke to me as a woman with the theme of anger connecting them both. I watched both of these plays online and I was very surprised at how much they impacted me for this reason. Usually watching a play through a screen, you don’t get the same feeling or vibe as you would if you were in a theatre, but watching these plays it was like I was there, in the front row. They made me forget where and who I was for an hour or so and I think that is very powerful. I can’t imagine how I would have felt if I saw them in person

Drawing on a Mother’s Experience is a one woman show written and performed by Bobby Baker. It made sense of the first eight years of motherhood before moving on, moving on to a life without your kids around. It was written in London but the version I watched was being performed in New York. Bobby Baker said, “I felt strongly that the importance of the mothers’ role, indeed parenting as a whole, was shockingly undervalued. I built on my experience of using my own true stories, blending this with a commentary on domesticity, motherhood and the role of the artist. I found a subtly subversive political voice that communicated my anger in a bearable way.” She used a large white sheet on the floor and throughout the piece, she would draw on it with different substances such as Guinness or flour. Each of these substances came with a story about her experience of being pregnant or being a mother. I enjoyed the structure of this performance, the object or substance, the story to go with it and then the drawing with it. This kept me very engaged and satisfied. I noticed one line which confused me and made me feel as though I wanted to know why it was said so many times, “don’t worry I’m not going to talk about that”. She felt uncomfortable talking about things such as birth or women’s anatomy, or she was worried the audience may not agree with it.  

It’s True, It’s True, It’s True, also an online watch, is a gripping dramatization of a 1612 rape trial. When Agostino Tassi, the pope’s favourite artist, was accused of raping 15-year-old Gentileschi, the seven-month case was widely publicised. It interweaves the court transcripts with history, myth, contemporary insight and moments of satire which lead me to think how much has actually changed? The near-full nakedness of Artemisia in the middle of the play was a pinnacle moment for me, one that unexpectedly became comic when loud sexual music plays and hilariously critiques the men assuming women “wanted it” when it comes to sex versus rape. I felt empowered as a woman, it reminded me how stupid this phrase is.

After watching this play it got me thinking about how annoyed I am about the recent events of spiking in nightclubs and how this affects woman’s safety today. that there are people everywhere getting spiked in clubs, not only in their drinks but through needles! I am furious that other people are making me afraid. Why do I have to be wary of my safety every minute of every day? Why is it when I see a girl walking on her own in the dark my first thought is God, I hope nothing happens to her? And why do I feel like no matter how hard we try, no matter how many times we boycott clubs or do a girl’s night in, it’s not going to stop? This is at the forefront of my mind every day and I’m sick of it. I’ve been writing some poetry on this as a way to vent my anger and hurt about this issue and I think it is an issue and political focus I might like to explore more in my work.

Screenshot of a post on Instagram with an image saying Girls Night In

Naomi Watson
Naomi is part of the Bunbury Banter Young Playwrights Programme 2020-2021


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