Hyena Dramaturgy: Romana Soutus @ Edfringe 2016

Hyena

Paradise in The Vault (Venue 29)

 Aug 22-28 9.40 pm

A daringly intimate and visceral show about the beast within

Straight from its world premiere at La MaMa in NYC, Hyena is an uncompromising examination of intimacy, vulnerability, and sexuality. Provocative and devilish, writer and performer Romana Soutus flirts dangerously with the dichotomy of the public and private self. This solo performance dares to reveal Soutus’ raw impulses, anxieties and desires, as she throws two fingers up to society's rigid framework of femininity.

Director Rachel Levens weaves the lush language of Hyena through a variety of performance styles, all underscored with an original sound design by composer/sound designer Gareth Hobbs. Soutus challenges her audience to figuratively and literally unlock the beast, and reimagines the role of the audience in interactive theatre. 

What was the inspiration for this performance?

While I was doing a workshop with Belarus Free Theatre they challenged us to write one page that could never be performed on a stage in our home country. I’m from Ukraine originally and I thought: “Ooh, I’ve got tons of things I couldn’t say!” So I sat down and started writing and nothing really scary came out. None of it scared me to say. So I took a second and genuinely asked myself: “What are you really, genuinely, shaking-in-your-boots scared to tell people?” and Hyena was born.

How did you go about gathering the team for it?

The theatre, like most spaces, is predominately occupied by men. It was a surprising difficult journey to find female designers and production staff in the original iteration of this project. For this production in the Fringe, every single member of our team on the ground in Edinburgh self identifies as a woman. This is a one-woman show that deals with issues of femininity and it felt essential to create an environment where women’s voices were actively being presented.

 

How did you become interested in making performance?

I fell in love with theatre and live performance because it is active vulnerability. You are taking your body and opening it up for the people in the space around you. You’re taking on and becoming a medium for fears and dreams. It’s a terrifying prospect, when you think about it. I’ve always wanted to walk into that terrifying space and Hyena is a manifestation of that personal journey.

Was your process typical of the way that you make a performance?

Hyena is the first piece I have written and my first solo performance. I’ve been working on it for 2 years now and no part of the process has been typical because I’ve never gone down this path before. Some points in the journey felt right and, if given the chance, I would go back and do some things differently. If you start your journey from the unknown, your journey can never be typical because it is always new. I challenge myself to write and perform from the unknown.

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

Contemporary theatre has this unfortunate tendency to disregard the audience. Either the fourth wall becomes a security blanket or artists burst through the audience’s space without any consideration for the people who have come to engage with the art.

A reviewer from New York put the audience experience of Hyena best: “Although Hyena is described as an interactive piece, this is a bit of a misnomer. Not interactive in a traditional sense, Soutus mostly interacts with the audience by placing her vulnerability in their hands.” (Rachel Kerry, New York Theatre Review)

I hope the audience feels cared for. I hope they feel essential to the piece. I hope they feel that I value their presence and I want to connect with them.

As an audience member, you’re the reason I’m here. I owe it all to you.

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?

I put my fate in the audience’s hands, quite literally.

I start the show locked in a dog cage.

I don’t have a key to unlock the cage.

Neither does my stage manager, nor any other member of my team.

The key will sit on top of the cage, far enough so that I can’t reach it, and I need to convince someone in the audience to come up and unlock me.

I am asking for the audience’s consent to go to dark places with them.

This isn’t just my journey, it's ours.

By giving them all of the power from the very first moment of the show, I’m giving them my trust.

If I can trust my audience, I hope they can trust me too.

I’m asking them to go through a lot with me.

Hyena isn’t an easy play, by any means.

It is emotionally draining and difficult. I am asking a lot from them.

By unlocking me, we get to hold hands and know we have each other’s back from the get go.

Do you see your work within any particular tradition?

My work seems less rooted in a particular tradition and more rooted in experience.

I’ve been lucky enough to be supported by my artistic family at La MaMa.

I started writing Hyena at their summer writing workshop in Umbria.

I did my workshops and rehearsals at La MaMa’s Great Jones rehearsal studios.

I performed in the Club at La MaMa.

I have gotten feedback and support from La MaMa staff and family since day one.

La MaMa is an institution not only because it was the bastion of avant-garde experimental theatre in New York, but because its founder Ellen Stewart created a home.

I am rooted in that experience of artistic home.

I am rooted in the experience of being supported by those who have come before me and engaging with those that are working alongside me.

Playwright and Performer ROMANA SOUTUS is a New York based actress, playwright, and producer. For the last four years, Romana has performed and produced at the experimental theatre institution La MaMa ETC, serving as a Steering Member of the Junior Committee. She has also worked with Belarus Free Theatre, Theatre MOTUS, Dijana Milošević of DAH Theatre, and playwright Catherine Filloux.

Director RACHEL LEVENS is a director and deviser of new plays, a dramaturg, and a teaching artist. Her New York credits include Hyena (La MaMa), The Expulsion by Mary DeCarlo (Thespis Theater Festival), and Madigan and the Magic Box written and performed by Lindsey Leonard (Dixon Place). She served as an assistant director on various premiere productions including Selma ’65  by Catherine Filloux (La MaMa) and 16 Words or less by Peggy Stafford (Clubbed Thumb).

Agent of Dramaturgy: Sarah Sigal @ Edfringe 2016

Agent of Influence: The Secret Life of Pamela More

Underbelly Cowgate (White Belly), 56 Cowgate, Edinburgh, EH1 1EG Thursday 4th – Sunday 28th August 2016 (not 15th), 14:40

Mid-calf, navy blue day dress with pearl buttons by Victor Stiebel. Dove-grey tweed jacket and fox stole by House of Hartnell. Hat by Elsa Schiaparelli. Perfect for luncheons, jaunts around town and spying on fascists.

Lady Pamela, fashion columnist and socialite, is recruited by MI5 to keep notes on Wallis Simpson and Edward VIII, suspected to be colluding with the German Embassy. But, Pamela suddenly realises that what began as an adventure has led to a deadly struggle for power in a world in the shadow of war.

After the critically acclaimed World Enough and Time by Sarah Sigal (Park Theatre 2014), Rebecca Dunn reprises her role as the beguiling Pamela More in this new piece. Writer Sarah Sigal comments, Some characters take on a life of their own. Pamela was always very demanding. Now she has her own show. And a Twitter account. Who knows what's next?

In the depths of a darkened bomb shelter, Lady Pamela tells a tale of adventure, espionage and intrigue, of glamorous cocktail parties, socialites and high fashion. This is a world where the news is filled with reports of economic crises, authoritarian governments and refugees fleeing war-torn countries.

From Jessica Beck, the director who brought Whiskey Tango Foxtrot to the Fringe in 2015, comes a journey of 1930s glamour and fear.

What was the inspiration for this performance?
My grandmother remembered reading about the Wallis Simpson/Edward VIII affair in America in the 1930s (where the newspapers didn't adhere to the reporting blackout) and wondering if it must have been a plot between MI5 and the CIA to get the fascist sympathising king off the throne. 

That curiosity passed down to my mother, and then to me. I find the 1930s particularly interesting now because I feel we're living in a parallel time - refugee crises, the rise of political extremism and isolationist policies. The choice between taking action or sticking your head in the sand in a period of uncertainty and fear feels universal. The spy story felt like an exciting way of exploring these themes.

How did you go about gathering the team for it?
I had already worked with Becca Dunn to develop the character of Pamela over a number of years for our last play together, World Enough and Time (Park Theatre, 2014). The director, Jessica Beck, and sound and lighting designer, Phil Hewitt, are both long-time collaborators, having worked with me on Dogfight (Underbelly, 2007) and Alice's Adventures in the New World (Old Red Lion, 2010), of which Becca was a part as well. 

Our assistant director Katharina Reinthaller has worked with Jessica on other shows and directed a short piece of mine last year. Our illustrator, costume and set designer Alberta Jones is a collaborator of Phil and Jessica's and our producer Carla Almeida is a friend. It's wonderful to be able to work in a team that I know so well and trust so much. 

How did you become interested in making performance?
I started acting when I was a child, then directing in high school and then writing when I was at university. I was lucky to have gone to a university that encouraged me to produce my own plays and discover different approaches to making work independently, not just through classes for my drama BA.

Was your process typical of the way that you make a performance?
Yes and no. Agent of Influence involved research, discussion, devising and work-shopping that fed into the scripting process. This is often typical of the way I work. However, the character of Pamela came from a previous play and we developed her into a one-woman show, which is something I've never done before.

What do you hope that the audience will experience?
I hope the audience will be able to laugh and enjoy Pamela's journey, but also learn something about the history of the inter-war period and be able to connect the themes and ideas in the play to the world we live in now.


What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?
I wanted to create a one-woman show that engaged with storytelling so that the audience could develop an intimate relationship with the main character and become invested in her journey. Some of the material in the play is quite heavy so I felt humour was essential to explore the period.


Do you see your work within any particular tradition?
For this particular project, I drew inspiration from Nancy Mitford, Evelyn Waugh, Eric Ambler, John le Carré, Alfred Hitchcock and the film noir tradition. However, I wanted to take the style and subject matter of the 1930s and view it through a feminist lens, focusing on the particular experience of a woman. In our society, we do not spend enough time telling the stories of women in history.

Sarah Sigal

Sarah Sigal has a BA in English Literature and Theatre from Gettysburg College and an MA and PhD from Goldsmiths College. She is a playwright, dramaturg and director working in physical theatre, devised work, site-specific performance and new writing. Sarah has made work for the Shunt Vaults, the Union Theatre, the Cheltenham Everyman, the Arcola, the Edinburgh Festival.

Two for the Ladies

I'm sure that there is a reason behind this top twenty countdown of female performers at the Fringe. I'll even work in my introductory comments on science and religion by the end.

I'm sure. In the meantime, at number fifteen, it's Olivia Lee. She's more famous as a comedian, but having read the press release properly, I realise that she is doing a play: Touched, Like  A Virgin. It does fit in with Lee's comic TV presence (she's playing a woman who is doubting that she can 'have it all'), which tickles gender assumptions to reveal the... well, her new TV show is called Man Up, and she's trying to get 'hapless men to turn their lives around.'

Surprised that she didn't invite me onto that. I think turning a bearded, introverted critic into a man about town would make great television. Anyway, Touched was written by Zoe Lewis and plugs into that anxiety that is bothering both sexes  - isn't it time we grew up?
Thursday 15th August to Sunday 25 August 2013 (Not Saturdays)
Le Monde,16 George St, Edinburgh, EH2 2PF


Funnily enough, she's part of a programme at Le Monde, called Funny Women Pop Up. That ought to make my countdown a little easier...

The thing is, I am deliberately not chasing female performances to be included in this list. As a scientific experiment, I am just trawling my inbox, and seeing what interests me, and fits. My hypothesis is that if the female presence in the Fringe is healthy, I'll be able to complete the countdown without having to look in the Fringe guide for help.

To that end, I'm including Ménage à Trois as number fourteen. I feel lazy - it's so obvious to include and making it part of a 'women in performance' piece is so predictable. It is an NTS presentation of Claire Cunningham and Gail Sneddon's award winning autobiographical study of a life with crutches.

Okay, this is really exposing the problems of a list based on a genetic identity. Ménage à Trois could be slapped into any number of categories, including 'most likely to make a grown man cry' and 'best computer and human interaction.' Cunningham has been wowing the Fringe - and the rest of the world since she did Mobile/Evolution at DanceBase. Sneddon's tricknology effectively expands the aesthetic palette to clarify the theme of isolation that gives Ménage its bite.
Paterson’s Land at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 
9 to 25 August 2013

Even if the concept is falling apart, I'll see if I can't keep going. It's kind of dumb to expect things to have an intrinsic connection just because they are made by women. It presupposes an essentialist female identity. 

Slapping in number thirteen won't help - unlucky for me, because here is a feminist spoken word piece, directed by a woman, Sacha Kyle, about a woman, Andrea Dworkin, but written and performed by a man, Alan Bissett. 

Brave Bissett's bringing back Dworkin's dogmatic diatribes protesting perverse pornography: Dworkin's writings traced the outlines of misogyny that contained the pornographic images of the 1980s.  Dworkin was an important voice in feminist history, although she was somewhat marginalised at the end of her life, and her description of how hatred of women permeated erotic culture is bracing and, frankly, terrifying. 

BAN THIS FILTH!
Scottish Storytelling Centre
2– 11 August 

Does this belong on the list: it's about an important thinker - is her gender relevant? It's by a man - is his gender relevant?

All these questions, and more, will be answered after this message from our sponsors...

One for the Ladies

Long term fans of The VileBlog may be aware that I am obsessed with the war between science and religion. It's mainly because of the top level ignorance on display (reading parables literally, not understanding the difference between a theory and a fact. My current favourite idiocy is the picture meme doing the rounds - something about "Can I come and teach evolution in your church?" I like to link this meme to one of the many articles about how the Catholic Church now accepts the theory of natural selection.

Anyway, enough of the false dichotomy set up by fault lines that run through American political thinking, and onto the Fringe. It's time for another top three, or top five, or top twenty. Let's see how long I go before I decide that's enough...

Originally, this list was going to be about religion in the Fringe. However, I have a really good rant about the misuse of the word planned, so here we have the hit parade of plays about women. Joyce MacMillan mentioned something about a male dominated theatre community during the CATS awards on Sunday, and there was some fuss about the Lyceum's autumn season.

I am going for positive discrimination - and yes, I am slightly embarrassed about that bloke who had the topless ladies in his video. Let's call this the feminist countdown.

In at number twenty, we have Rouse Ye Women - no better entry for a feminist list. The name's good enough, but so's the plot. In 1910, the women of Cradley Heath went on strike, and their action led to the first ever minimum wage. The company behind it, and then we danced, promise that they are influenced by Pina Bausch - which gets me in.

Besides, these historical plays that are really about politics (both gender and socialist in this case) are always more intriguing than the more obvious response to recent events ones. The distance between event and recreation gives the subject space to become more abstract and, ahem, universal.
C aquila, Roman Eagle Lodge
1 to 17 August 2013

Number nineteen in the patronisingly entitled 'one for the ladies' hit parade is Rosie Wilby's Is Monogamy Dead? I might be out of my depth here - I think Wilby is a comedian - but her press release frames the show as a riposte to something Alain Botton said. Wilby seems to have been doing plenty of research to answer her question (including on-line surveys, trying to have sexy times in saunas), and I'd trust her conclusions more than Botton's. 
Baillie Room, Assembly Hall

1-25 Aug (not 12) at 17.15

MORGAN LLOYD MALCOLM

Rouse Ye Women has an all female cast, and Rosie Wilby is all woman, so I am disappointed that number seventeen has got a man in it. Happy Never After is a two hander about a man and a woman hoping that love and laughs are enough. They probably should have asked Wilby for advice.

Still, Happy was written by Hannah Rodger, formerly one of the Old Vic's New Voices. She is confronting me with the problem of my fatuous positive discrimination: her writing is strong enough to get into any number of top fives style lists (new writing, sex comedy, whatever). 

 THE PLEASANCE COURTYARD THEATRE, EDINBURGH

31 JULY – MONDAY 26 AUGUST 2013

Moving swiftly on before I notice that she has a male director (he was involved in the musical Maltida, so he must have some skills), and my entire foundation crumbles, shooting in at number sixteen is You Once Said Yes, written by Morgan Lloyd Malcolm and Katie Lyons and directed by Mimi Poskitt. It is part of the British Council showcase, and the show won a Total Theatre Award in 2011 (which means it is right back in my comfort zone - experimental and challenging).

The press release doesn't give much away, apart from warning potential audience members to wear comfortable shoes. The company behind this, Look Left Look Right, is all about site-specific theatre interactive theatre... I don't really care what it is about, I am already buying it.  Look, it's a one-to-one piece. 

Underbelly Cowgate, Edinburgh: August 12th- 26th 

Show involves walking, please dress appropriately and wear comfortable shoes.

Age: 16+

Times: one person per show time: 12:30, 12:40, 12:50, 13:00, 13:10, 13:20, 13:30, 13:40, 13:50, 14:00, 14:10, 14:20, 14:30, 14:40, 14:50, 15:00, 15:10, 15:20

And on that note, over to the adverts for a few words, while I think about how I can continue an all female countdown and lend it any reason beyond tokenism. 

Good Women

It seems pretty clear that the traditional actor's complaint that "there are no good parts for women" has become untrue in Scotland. Recent months have seen The Guid Sisters - The NTS making good on the promise of their earlier all-female special, The House of Bernarda Alba - She-Town up in Dundee and Alison Peeble's searing My Shrinking Life. There was even a one woman special at The Oran Mor, The Great Disappointment of Santa Muerta, written and performed by the always imaginative Amanda Monfrooe.

Although The Guid Sisters was originally written in a French Canadian dialect, it has become something of a Scots classic: the translation went straight into Scots and, despite having some awkward edges - it's never clear why a bunch of Scottish ladies would have fancy French names or be so horrified by the thought of a club where people like to drink - picks up on the same cheeky energy of that genuinely home-spun classic, The Steamie. Praised for its representation of working class life, and respect for the strong female characters, The Guid Sisters acts as handy showcase for the wealth of wonderful Caledonia female actors.

My Shrinking Life is a deeply personal piece that sees Peebles grapple with the consequences of MS: unlike The Guid Sisters, it emphasises a stunning central performance (Peebles is brilliantly cynical, and even throws down a few of those Chekov and Shakespeare lines, just to prove she can). It's the same in Santa Muerta: the power of the actor defines the impact of the work. The Guid Sisters had a few star turns - that one out of Chewing The Fat - but was mostly all about the ensemble. In fact, it would be unfair to pick out one or two names as exceptional when the play is predicated on each character being revealed through their interactions with the others.

At this point, I probably ought to make some ridiculous statement about how things have gone too far the other way, and that men aren't getting their share. As it goes, there are still more male authors and directors knocking about, and equality is probably still a distance away. Instead, I'll make another sly dig at those directors who pick Shakespeare - if there was less Shakespeare on stage, they'd be more good roles for women - and vaguely wonder whether the very idea of talking about "male" and "female" theatre is even relevant.

Santa Muerta and My Shrinking Life are both very personal works, but the issues they raise are not insular. They share a preoccupation with death - one's concerned with the denial of it, the other with its inevitability - and range across various emotions that are not necessarily limited to the artist's life.

Dirty Paki Lingerie

Frankly, the less I say about Dirty Paki Lingerie the better it will be. I am so keen to be smart and clever - and irreverent - when I preview Fringe shows that I am bound to end up sounding obnoxious if I try to copy the spirit of this one woman monologue. Fortunately, Aizzah Fatima was on hand to tell me about her mixture of comedy and social commentary.


GKV: I have always been wary of the Fringe - what makes you want to bring your show here?

So I can air my dirty lingerie on another continent of course!

With the success of the play Dirty Paki Lingerie with sold out runs in New York City as well as Toronto, I want to bring the show to a wider International audience.  It's an honor to be part of the largest theater festival in the world.  

My European friends in NYC were insistent that I take the show to Europe.  They thought it was timely, and the sort of politically intelligent show audiences in Europe would just eat up.  I wanted to test out this theory, and what better way to find out then to perform for a month at the largest theater festival

in the world.

GKV: The title is pretty provocative...

The show is a whirlwind of personalities that will offend, make you laugh out loud, give you the rough stuff you want, and then finally cuddle your inner child.

GKV: And do you have a serious intent behind the headline grabbing title?

What makes this show stand out is that it transcends cultural boundaries, and allows people from all walks of life to see themselves in the specific stories of these six Pakistani American Muslim females.  In so doing, it humanizes Muslims.  

We are human after all; we only sell our second born to the devil.  It also gives a much needed voice in the arts to the female Muslim American experience.

GKV: How important is the balance between comedy and seriousness in the piece?
Being a Muslim female, I couldn’t think of a better weapon than comedy to show people the sexier side of American Muslims.  Yes, contrary to what you might believe, there is a sexier side to American Muslims. But you’ll have to come see the show to find out what it looks like.

Growing up as part of a Pakistani community in the U.S, I found it hilarious when Pakistani moms would comb through Urdu Newspaper matrimonials for their children.  Some of these moms are natural born sales people.  Yet they have never been given the opportunity to workoutside the home.  One of the characters in the show was inspired by so many older women I knew who would do this sort of thing.  You haveto be able to laugh at yourself to gain a deeper understanding, and hopefully to make a change for the better.

The challenge with writing a play that talks about politics, religion,racial profiling, bullying, sexuality, culture vs. tradition, and identity is that it can be easy to fall into the trap of sounding too preachy. The play tackles all these issues with humor, and that is what allows people to connect with the characters and makes it a successful piece.

GKV: What inspired the creation of the work?
The dirty Paki muse in her lingerie came to me and I just couldn’t say no.  Actually, I knew all these remarkable women, and felt compelled to tell their stories.  I also wanted to combat the growing Islamophobic sentiment

 in the US where people are opposing building of Islamic community centers and mosques.  

 

I thought if I can show people how similar the Muslim American community is to any other community, then it should help break down some barriers. 

The Assembly Hall - Baillie Room

1 – 26 August 2012

17:15.18:15pm (60mins)

Benny Hill

First memory

Benny Hill was banned in my house, because it was crude. However, one season, my mother’s former pupil became the choreographer of Hill’s Angels. The whole family was forced to watch it. Being a sensitive young man, I am not sure which sentence was worse.

First Revelation

Benny Hill discovered an absolute truth of comedy. Anything can be funny, if you speed it up and play the yakety-sax tune over the top. For confirmation of this theory, watch footage of me on a date at double speed. It is even used by NLP brainwashers as a way to distance the individual from bad memories.

First Critique

Grant Smeaton sees Benny Hill as a man always out of time. The start of his career saw him longing for end of the pier shows, where the comedian was king, courting countless dolly-birds. By the time ITV dropped his show, having released that he’d been doing the same gags since 1969 and they could save money by simply selling past series, he had almost turned full circle. The burlesque revival and post-feminism were being born, to salve his sexist sins.

Second Memory

The headmaster had a special assembly to tell us that slapping people on the head, contrary to last night’s television, was not funny. Especially when the class victim ended up in hospital after lunch-time’s antics. Kiss-chase, on the other hand, was okay, as long as nobody caught their clothes on a door knob or something, and ran around in their skidders.

Second Revelation

Smeaton looks surprisingly like Benny Hill, and can capture his mannerisms – the slightly bemused innocent on the brink of mischief, the lusting loser lover, the cunning idiot. This man is not to be trusted with bald headed men or French Maids.

Second Critique

The non-chronological episodes of this play mirror Hill’s own vaudeville background. If they are not all funny, or fail to be entirely tragic when Hill kicks the bucket, gets Oedipal or tries to keep up with Kenny Everett’s cruder reinvention of the smut’n’satire selection, they reflect the awkward, self-knowing humour of Hill himself, who often told shit gags knowing the humour was in getting away with it.

Third Revelation

Hill’s broadcast in 1969 was more popular than the live footage of the moon-landings. Television audiences were idiots before X-Factor.

Third Critique

A cast of three – Smeaton is always Hill – is enough to get the range of Hill’s comedy. The lack of deviation from the simple strategy – serious sidekick, dolly-bird and Hill – gives the play a consistency despite the jumping between eras while preventing the deeper analysis of Hill’s character.

Fourth Revelation

So popular was Hill in US prisons that they went on a riot when his show was moved to after their bedtime. This would have been funnier with yakety sax going on as old scores were settled and prisoners discovered the joys of contemporary art in using materials to hand as paint for new cell murals.

Fourth Critique

The attempt to rescue Hill from redundancy is undermined by the emphasis on his character as old-fashioned even for his time, a saucy seaside postcard that wasn’t funny after the reading on the rack.

Fifth Critique

Smeaton is being bold again. He is a restless theatre-maker, and brave enough to rescue the terminally unfashionable. This will be a hit at Fringe 2012.

Third Memory

The first time I ever saw a reconstruction of Weimar cabaret was on Benny Hill. At the time I was more interested in the bare leg of the Hill’s angel than the funny German accents. However, I still remember the line, sung by the angel. “I asked him about my marks. He said “I’ll give you seven out of ten.”

A prostitute joke before the watershed? And I don’t remember any puns from Jim Davidson, who was being a cheeky cockney chappy around the same time on ITV.  

Stripping, Kicking, Wolves and Footballers

As morally confused as I am, two subjects are bound to get my attention in the Fringe brochure: gender politics and striptease. Fortunately, Class Stage Productions are covering both this year: Dances With Wolves, a comedy about strippers (a change from the usual tragic narrative of the innocent who finds herself slowly drawn into the underworld) and On The Bench, an everyday tale of alpha male football celebrities. Faster than that time a bouncer tried to get me to pay the bill for my female host’s champagne in that Soho club, I got in contact with writer and director Kirsty Eyre.

“On the Bench is less about gender identity and more about what Premiership Football has become in England in terms of scandal, sexism, tabloids and the world of celebrity,” Eyre corrects me. “This is football, not from a player's point of view or a fan's point of view but from Joe Public's point of view.”

My mistake was easy enough to make, I plead. Teaming up a play about football – performed by a female cast – with another about strippers – opens up various questions about the gap between expectations on young people. I’m sure I read in The Daily Mail that most preteen girls want to become lap-dancers when they grow up.

“Sure, football is pimped as a man's game and a male subject,” Eyre elaborates. “But the story has not been refigured in anyway for a female cast. It is what it is. The script would work if played by male actors but would provide a different dynamic entirely. I wrote both pieces within the last 12 months without consciously deciding to explore gender identity - it was a later decision to cast On the Bench with an all female cast.”

The connection between the thrill of illicit sexuality – despite its new found social acceptability, stripping remains very much a secret past-time for performers and audience – and premiership footballers could not, however, be more relevant. Eyre is happy to point out how circumstances have conspired to support her play. She observes that “More stories are published in the press about extra-curricular misgivings than what happens on the pitch. Take the superinjuction. Take Giggsy. I could not have wished for a more contemporary backdrop provided by today's tabloids.”

Having been disappointed in my obsession by On The Bench, if not by the ideas behind the play itself, I turned to Dancing With Wolves. Although it turns up in the Theatre Section of the Fringe, it proudly claims burlesque and cabaret credentials. “It has been workshopped and devised throughout rehearsals in order to draw upon the strengths of each actor. As we have some brilliant singers amongst our cast, tongue-in-cheek comedy cabaret was a new ingredient I added to the mixing pot,” Eyre says. “I personally find burlesque a tasteful form of entertainment which can be enjoyed by both men and women. It requires charisma, comedy and an act which enables the performer to have a connection with a male and female audience.”

Last year’s Fringe did see a backlash against burlesque: certain shows were panned for lacking that charisma and taste, and many cabaret nights marginalised burlesque, only a year after it seemed to have conquered variety. The decision of theatre companies to work with its aesthetic might be its best hope of redemption. Dances With Wolves shares burlesque’s humour, setting within a more structured context. It also uses humour to move into dangerous territory.

“Dances for Wolves is set in a sleazy strip joint rather than anything classy and burlesque. I have always found the dynamic of a stripper and her audience fascinating in terms of who is playing who and which gender is in control. I have chosen striptease as a vehicle for comedy and escapism.” Yet Eyre wants to get beneath appearances. “A woman says one thing with her body and something completely different in her mind. What would happen if you could read her mind and her thoughts as she performs a striptease? How would you feel if she was actually doing her shopping list or worrying about an E-bay bid?”

And despite the comedy, Eyre retains a clear moral perspective. “I work in a male dominated environment where city boys regularly boast about ending up in the pound in the pot place down the road. I find the concept of strip joints grotesque, uncomfortable, dated and confusing.” And while the show might end democratically, through a vote on which of the four performers does “dance for the wolves”, it is clear that the comedy does not exclude a clear expression of her original vision.