Stripped-down prose has a new meaning: girls around the world are reading great books aloud, in their birthday suits. saw the Joburg show

sexual context, seems surprisingly normal and that instead of emphasising gender, it actually breaks it down so that what you’re seeing is not four naked girls but four human beings.

And there’s this too: I had this idea that the nakedness would distract the audience from the words being read, but in fact the opposite is true. Sure, there is that initial oh-my-gosh-they’re-nude thing but that lasts probably less than a minute. Once the girls are reading, the beauty and drama of the words are what hold your attention. The naked girls are an aesthetic enhancement: they are their own sensual props, lending the passages rawness and vulnerability. It’s really quite lovely.

The girls reading tonight are Hayleigh Evans, Alicia Skead, Lex LaFoy and Hhlubi Mthimkhulu. Some might be performers — actresses, singers — by trade, but for all of them bar one it’s the first time they’ve been naked on stage. The event will return in July when, in recognition of Madiba’s birthday and National Reading Day, all the books read will be by local authors.

“It was easier than I thought,” Evans says about dropping the robe. “But I didn’t know anyone in the audience tonight so it was kind of nice. I think it might be a little more strange when people I know come to watch. But it was incredibly empowering.”

Skead, who also performed at the Cape Town reading, admits that those initial naked moments are still pretty terrifying, but then the writing comes to the rescue.

“Once you strip everything down and you have that beauty of the words, you have listening,” she says. “Everybody, us, the audience, is so engaged. We had people walking out of here telling us, ‘You make me want to read again.’ That’s what we want to achieve.”

For Mthimkhulu (wonderful husky voice) it felt kind of revolutionary. “It’s like, ‘Hey y’all — it’s OK to be yourself.’ It felt like I was announcing that to the world, that we’re all born like this so it’s fine.”

It wouldn’t work with guys, though, would it? The consensus seemed to be no, unless they were reading humour. Naked girls are an object of sensuality, nearly divine. Naked dudes are generally kind of comical. So let’s avoid that, I think.

“It takes you back to your childhood, doesn’t it?” Skead says. “Isn’t it so nice and soothing? Sometimes I think we forget the beauty of having someone read to you. I think it’s one of the most amazing, romantic things.” LS

• Naked Girls Reading returns to POP Art Theatre, Joburg, July 14-17. Go to popartcentre.co.za or nakedgirlsreading.com