★★★★
Think radical. Think promises you can keep. Think two female politicians interviewed on their policies on live TV. Think the only logical solution to society’s problems. Ban men. That’s right: Agnes and Maud are ahead of you. Minotaur Theatre Company’s I’m Not Saying We Should, But What If We Did? oozes satire from the off. It is a fizzing, immersive, energetic show that douses you in parody but doesn’t pull its punches when it has you exactly where it wants you.
Launched into the chaos of behind the scenes of a Saturday night chat show, theSpaceTriplex immediately transforms. A thousand things are happening, a thousand crew members are arguing over the top of each other and before you know it the cameras are rolling and we meet up and coming political figures Agnes (Lizzie White) and Maud (Harriet Pringle). Violence against women has been declared a national emergency in the UK. The voting campaign starts now. There was a brief stint of being topless on London Bridge. But the real work starts now. And it starts with, well, banning men.
The script is punchy, the dialogue quickfire but rhythmic. The two are synchronised, they know their minds. Their minds echo female rage. As their policies come to light, each ever so slightly more ludicrous than the last, the talk show spirals. It is a clever set-up, with the audience acting as the live audience, the presenter sitting in the audience opposite Maud and Agnes, who are also being filmed in real time and shown on a screen to the back of the stage. The multimedia aspect of the show ties the image together and throws you fully into the performance. Ad breaks interrupt the flow, but it’s when flashbacks to each of the women’s lives start happening that the weight of the satire starts to settle in.
It’s a credit to the direction of the performance (by both Pringle and White, who also wrote the show), the switching of the borderline ridiculous to the sincerity of real life and past memories, that when the pace changes a small lump in your throat forms. From there the gravity of what the two are putting forward—the statistics of violence against women littered into irony and laughter, the stories of encounters with men across a multitude of settings—sits with the audience.
Turning to the memories of the pair, the message is not overt. The consequences linger in a sinister fashion just outside of the script. The audience are left to fill in the final gaps, suggesting the heart of the matters are just too raw to be articulated. And then before that can really seep in, you’re snapped back to the chat show. Back to the matter at hand. And the matter is banning men.
I’m Not Saying We Should, But What If We Did? is delectable. It is smart, quick and when it wants to be, it is tender and quiet. It says everything by saying very little. The nuance is compelling and the true art is in the brash, abrasive nature of how they stand by their policies, smudged makeup and all. The acting is second to none and the comic delivery sharp. This dark comedy will make you laugh, it will make you angry, and ultimately, it might actually make you consider Anges and Maud’s proposal. What’s the worst that could happen?
I’m Not Saying We Should, But What If We Did? was performed at theSpaceTriplex from 11-16 August as part of Edinburgh Fringe.
Words by Hannah Goldswain
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