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Graceless in Edinburgh

Written by Stephanie Sadler
Thursday, 23 July 2009 00:00

Womanhood means independence, love, nurture, office politics, impending wrinkles, wobbly bits to conceal and curves to flaunt. It makes us vulnerable to the lure of frilly knickers and inevitable blisters from staggeringly high heels that would make Carrie proud.

Womanhood leads us on a journey of friendship, family and self-discovery, twisting around the oddities and awkwardness that often accompany us on the ride. It’s about time we confronted the raw truth of it all.

Honesty isn’t always graceful. But neither is being a woman. And that’s what Petticoats Rip, a young London-based theatre company, admits and explores in their warm and witty debut – Graceless.

Five fun and feisty women investigate the meaning and relevance of feminism in 2009 and remind us why it shouldn’t feel like the dirty word society has forced it to become. The audience is promised to be entertained, provoked, inspired. Described as an exploration of “motherhood to masturbation”, Graceless illuminates everyday thoughts and dilemmas from a fresh perspective. It is set to premier at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival next month.

With a view of London’s skyline stretching beyond the wall of windows on the 15th floor of Saint George’s Hotel, I met with East 15 Acting School graduates Ffion Glyn, Rachel Nussbaum, Jessica Pearce, Sophie Rowland and Eva Sampson who formed Petticoats Rip.

They used to be “feminists but…”. Now, in the comfort of their heated discussions on what it really means, they’re unabashed feminists who believe that the tainted label is actually correctly defined by values of humanity, equality and the beauty of choice without judgment. “I wonder why was I ashamed of saying I’m a feminist,” Glyn started. “I felt like I was judging myself and felt I would be judged by other people. Now, maybe as a rebellious act, I’ll say I’m a feminist.”

Why so difficult for women to relate to a concept that is meant to embody all that we are?

“I still kind of have to justify, but feminism isn’t what you think it is. There’s always the ‘but’ which we are trying to get away from,” Nussbaum explained. “The perception of feminism is so different from the real thing. What you don’t want to be is labelled under the perceptions.”

To the girls, it’s about respecting the fight of the women who came before: From the Suffragettes who kicked off the movement aiming to revolutionize the most fundamental issues to the second wave of determined law-changers who fought for further equality to the third wave who built on what had been achieved and corrected some of the failures.

Today, women in most countries benefit from the long fight with the decision to focus on either a career or children or both resting in their hands. “It’s about the right to choose,” Rowland said, “I think that just because you don’t have a career going to the city, say, doesn’t make you any less of a woman than bringing up children. It’s about choice.”

Graceless tests the contradictions and restraints that society imposes on female-kind. Man-hating, bra-burning feminism is an inaccurate portrayal that breeds stigmas and where assumptions and stereotypes are formed. “We don’t want to point the finger at men,” Pearce said. “Feminism has gone a long way since that. It’s also looking at how women judge other women and about our relationships with men as well.”

The show is directed by the company and Jamie Wood, director of 2008 Fringe First winner Paperweight. By bringing a man into the mix, the girls keep their message bubbling. Yes, it’s about being a woman, but it’s also simply about being human.

Betty Friedan, author of The Feminist Mystique, once said: “The only way for a woman, as for a man, to find herself, to know herself as a person, is by creative work of her own. There is no other way.”

One of Pearce’s favourite lines is: “To look at ourselves is a work of art.”

By the creativity of the stage, this production is a navigation of life from five different women’s points-of-view, colliding and dancing their way around the obstacles to embrace the opportunities. It’s about strangers, rainstorms, dancing and a lonely city. Their tale unfolds through striking movement, witty vignettes and haunting monologues.

“Graceless is going to be playful and peculiar as well as show all the anger and the fears and the worries that we have as young women,” Sampson said.

Rowland added: “It’s a real celebration. Sometimes we’re confused and sometimes we’re angry, but at the end of the day, we love being women.”

While Carrie and the girls in Sex and the City live a life a bit too frivolous and unrealistic (Glyn said: “I love Sex and the City, but I’d never be able to afford the shoes.”), the women of Petticoats Rip do engage with many elements of the show – the support women can give to one another, especially.

They want to show that women are sexy, witty, intelligent and driven, however gracelessly these elements may unfold. Pearce said it compares to the NYC drama in that it’s about discovering womanhood, “only we’re a bit angrier, a bit more peculiar and a bit more seductive."

 

Graceless premiers at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, running from 6th – 31st August in the Assembly Hall. There will be a preview show at the Camden People’s Theatre in London on 23 July.

For more information: www.petticoatsrip.co.uk