FESTIVAL FEATURES | Theatre Role Reversals PHOTO © MO EL-FATIH
L-R: Othello: An All-Female Production; Diane Torr in Donald Does Dusty. Previous page: Titus Andronicus: An All-Female Production
and we believe applying the ideas and unbridled creativity that comes with that to Shakespeare is the best way to keep it relevant and exciting.’ It is this combination of respect and irreverence that has made the Smooth Faced Gentlemen so dynamic – and with the addition of a i nal element: ‘the traditions of farce, slapstick, double-takes and general silliness. The more you can make an audience laugh, the more engaged they are, and the more it’ll hurt when you hit them with something serious.’
Of course, Shakespeare used single sex casts himself – albeit with boys playing the women, a trope that he worked for humour. Yet, until the advent of the 20th century, the iconic roles of theatre were more usually reserved for male characters.
If the Smooth Faced Gentlemen take a classic play and reverse the gender of its characters, a strategy that livens up the personal politics of the Bard, All Bare theatre company have taken a 20th-century queer classic and twisted it backwards. Genet’s The Maids – here translated by playwright Martin Crimp, himself a radical innovator – is a play about three women (who are usually played by men). Director Jesse Haughton- Shaw was inspired by this combination. ‘Crimp’s translation melts biting lyricism into Genet’s imagistic energy,’ she says. And running with the tagline ‘A bit of role-play never did anyone any harm’, The Maids presents a mutually dependent relationship that moves from fantasy into murder. Apart from Genet’s complicated layering of the action – the i rst scene is a performance of a role-play of the maids’ obsession with their mistress – Haughton-Shaw is fascinated by the script’s themes and the way it examines power within relationships. While she may have removed Genet’s most obvious role-reversal, she is aiming towards the heart of the play’s difi cult connections of repressed desire and submissive eroticism. The Smooth Faced Gentlemen and All Bare are more sophisticated than the critics in that
22 THE LIST FESTIVAL 20–31 Aug 2015
they toy with gender issues but connect them to wider themes. Diane Torr, meanwhile, has been messing around with preconceptions for decades. Once part of the legendary New York art scene and a member of Disband, a group of artists who were more punk than mere rock’n’roll could ever be, she returns to the Fringe with Donald Does Dusty. ‘Donald . . . began after the funeral of my brother in January 1992. My idea was to make a performance that was an homage to him and to Dusty Springi eld,’ she says. ‘Additionally, [I wanted] to create a more intimate way to deal with the death of loved ones.’ Torr’s popular Man for A Day workshops – and her performances in a variety of personae – have made her an iconic i gure who has been subverting masculine stereotypes with a i erce wit. The i nale of Donald Does Dusty sees her act as her brother performing Dusty Springi eld, after a subtle journey through her past and a look at her brother’s inl uence on her personality and ambition.
The connection between all these shows
is more than just that they are all centred on women. They are part of a healthy tradition of theatre that rejects the mundane and expected roles and, with a sense of fun, re-invents the relationship between performance and identity. If all the world is a stage, here is encouragement to stop accepting the expected, and imagine a l uid world of freedom and play. Donald Does Dusty, Summerhall, 560 1581, until 31 Aug (not 25), 7.35pm, £12 (£8).
The Maids, theSpace @ Surgeon’s Hall, until 22 Aug, 10.10am, £8 (£5). Othello: An All-Female Production, Underbelly Potterow, 0844 545 8252, until 31 Aug (not 20), 12.20pm, £10.50–£11.50 (£8–£9).
Titus Andronicus: An All-Female Production, Pleasance Dome, 556 6550, until 31 Aug (not 20), 5pm, £9.50–£11.50 (£7–£9).