Adrienne Truscott’s show has a provocative conceit – she’s doing stand up comedy and she’s naked from the waist down. She riffs on the fact that she’s ‘asking for it’, wondering excitedly what might happen by the end of the night. The show is uncomfortable, and dark but extremely funny.
It’s a feminist act, re-claiming the power of those victim-blaming and slut-shaming rape myths (‘look at how she was dressed’, ‘she was drunk’), turning them on their head, and exposing them for the joke they really are.
A mostly bare stage, with framed photos of all the male comedians who have made rape jokes (Bill Cosby gets a special platform, and a glass of whiskey), Truscott dances, sings, makes jokes and draws on her circus background with clever video projected on her stomach, and an ending that I won’t reveal, except to say that it had me in stitches.
Truscott’s targets are the male stand up comedians who find soft targets in rape victims and womenkind in general, perpetrating the belief that rape is something that can happen to you if you step out of line. Truscott ‘steps out of line’ again, again and again and we love her for it.
artaia-creativesinresidence on II INTERNATIONAL RESIDENTIAL WORKSHOP DIRECTED BY JOHN STRASBERG
bigart on Network Feedback request – entry from Julie Tolentino
Anonymous on Network Feedback request – entry from Julie Tolentino