‘What if I didn’t play along?” asks a woman who has willingly gone up on stage, and given her consent to be there and to participate by reading from a script. “You would ruin the show,” comes the blunt reply from Louise Orwin, who adds: “We’re just trying to have a good time here.” It’s a brilliant moment that helps illustrate the nature of consent, in this taboo-breaking piece about female sexual desire.
The opener in Camden People’s theatre’s festival of sex, Hotbed, Orwin’s show is a hot potato that asks why it is that the world – which includes women themselves – polices female sexuality. Millions of feminists are too ashamed to admit that their sexual fantasies involve wanting to be treated as an object. No woman wants to be raped, but that doesn’t mean some women don’t have rape fantasies – including some who have been raped.
“Politics don’t belong here because it’s a fantasy,” says Orwin, setting up a miniature playpen within the make-believe of theatre, where Barbie and Ken then take off their clothes and get it on. But she knows politics do get involved. Female desire is scrutinised by both left and right.
This still feels like a work in progress, with too much repetition, not enough variety and good ideas that are not always crystallised theatrically. But it is bold, brave work, and all the better for being filled with the voices of real women who, by speaking out, are staking a claim for their own erotic agency.
•At Camden People’s theatre, London, until 11 May. Box office: 020-7419 4841
