Live Performance Review: SLUTNIK™
Images courtesy of Sare Clarke Photography and SLUTNIK™.
Attention sluts!
Interested in orgasmic scenes of pleasure interspersed with heartbreaking monologues about the injustice of women in a society determined to keep them in their place? I have the theatre show for you.
Award-winning playwright Flick’s debut full-length play SLUTNIK™ explores a group of lesbian space cannibals, and if that three-word description doesn’t sell this play, I don’t know what will. SLUTNIK™ is quite possibly one of the strangest live performances I have ever watched, and I loved every second of it.
We begin with a group of lesbians disillusioned by mankind - and I literally mean MANkind; they’ve created some sort of Handmaid’s Tale-style dystopia for like the 100000th time in history and made life on earth even worse for everyone who isn’t a cis man. Horrifying, I know, but also not completely unrealistic given the current political climate worldwide. Sick of having to put up with it, a group of strong-willed ex-NASA lesbians have decided to load up a rocket ship and leave this cursed planet behind. Honestly, the biggest disappointment I had watching was the realisation that I will probably never be saved from this dying planet by a bunch of hot lesbians.
Sure it may be easy to dismiss this play as silly and fun, what with their bright pink boiler suits, a flogger wielding fembot, frequent brain-eating breaks, and scenes of women contorting around in various sex positions. But ultimately, it’s about the pain of oppression, the anger of being silenced by generations upon generations of men, and the impact that a male-dominated culture has had upon all of the people that culture was not built to serve.
Most importantly, the play explores modern feminism and the idea of whether one movement should focus solely on themselves or try and help everyone - paralleling the real-life, historic and ongoing competition for dominance between old-school and progressive feminism. With the rise of TERFs - and no that is not some sort of fun space acronym, as much as we may wish it meant something else than it does - now is the time to figure out what feminism is and who it supports. Bringing in the age-old question, what is the best way to fight for change?
Performative activism is also explored in SLUTNIK™ , a concept we are all too familiar with living in a socio-political climate where being seen as socially-conscious often seems to be mistakenly conflated with a sense of genuine social-consciousness. We see these space lesbians discussing the inclusion of all in their space (get it?), but ultimately prioritising their own safety over others. But does that make them just as bad as the rulers of the world they’re currently fleeing? I won’t spoil it but the scene containing the ‘gift’ is one of the most beautifully crafted allegories I have ever seen. Is it self -preservation or selfishness? Flick hasn’t spelled it out for you, it’s up to you, the viewer, to take it in and draw your own conclusions.
The performance by the actors was excellent, as they effortlessly switched from light-hearted banter to heavy topics, with each character shining in their specific monologue. Oh and keep an eye out for the sexual tension between two of the crew members.
So if you’re queer, an ally (as in a genuine one and not one of those who supports ‘the gays’ but would rather they keep ‘that stuff’ to themselves- because boy oh boy will this show make your implicit biases emerge), a suffering user of contraceptive pills, a space travel enthusiast, a pro-cannibalist, or just a big old fan of impromptu dance sequences then SLUTNIK™ is the way to go.
A very slutty 4.5/5.
SLUTNIK™ is showing at Theatreworks from the 1st to the 5th of February as part of Midsumma Festival. For tickets and more info, check out the Theatre Works website here.