thefestival
Camille O’sullivan, Book Festival, four stars for the Incredible Bleeding Woman + 5 pages of Fringe reviews
Dr Carnesky’s Incredible Bleeding Woman Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33) JJJJ
Marisa Carnesky has a provocative proposition: all magic is menstrual. Every expression of mysterious power, every ritual that appeals to unknown forces, can trace its origin back to the natural monthly cycle of fertility and feeling that for millennia has been demonised, medicalised and made taboo. The theory emerges from Carnesky’s real-life academic research and she unpacks it in a heightened, cod-professorial style accompanied by images from mythology, religion, art history, underground culture and light entertainment. What might at first sound farfetched coagulates into a powerful case.
This capacious imaginative framework is brought to life through a diverse series of short acts from Carnesky’s fellow “menstronauts” – performers from the alternative cabaret scene who have been deeply involved with the project’s evolution.
Their responses range from the intimate to the humorous to the surreal. Nao Nagai channels a shapeshifting serpent from Japanese mythology to bizarre, mesmerising effect while Fancy Chance illustrates theconnectionsbetweenmenstruation and maquillage in deadpan yet explicit fashion. Rhyannon Styles explores in friendly, conversational manner the metaphorical – and unexpectedly physical – implications of the subject for trans womanhood.
H Plewis sketches through dance an eerie, witchy domestic space of motherhood, movement and mess. And sword swallower Missa Blue draws on a real-life brush with death to show periods have effects well beyond their usual associations.
Add in video, social activism, parodic stage magic, beautiful costumes (by Claire Ashley) and exposed, extraordinary bodies and you get a show of many parts.
Different audiences will find them differently stimulating, amusing, empowering and absurd – as is to be expected from a rich and distinctive approach to a neglected and marginalised subject. The result is deeply personal and highly political, a multidimensional journey by radical showwomen setting out to reclaim the power of nature and magic. BEN WALTERS
Until 28 August. Today 2pm.