Writer: John Clancy
Director: Melanie Stewart
Melanie Stewart and John Clancy’s 55-minute slice of disjointed absurdism Just Like Hollywood was apparently conceived as a response to the US Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling, which ended American women’s constitutional right to abortion. The show blurb suggests the piece seeks to explore “the entrapment, degradation, and exertion of control over a young woman’s body in post-Roe v Wade America”. In fact, saddled with symbolism that is at times mighty clunky, the piece works best as an exploration of the power dynamics, protocols, rituals, and erotic charge of what looks an awful lot like a BDSM relationship.
Dressed in fishnets and a skimpy crimson dress, Kylie Westerbeck plays an unnamed performer auditioning for an unnamed role. Spurred on by a nasty pornographer stepdad she wants to make it big in movies. At the back of the theatre, an abusive and predatory Weinstein type (played with sinister metatheatrical zest by writer Clancy) barks out notes on her performance. “Can you make it better… younger… sexier…”. Try as she might Westerbeck, channelling the physicality, exaggerated expressions, and rictus grin of a silent movie star, just cannot get it right.
See, what the director is looking for is a kind of “whore, but pure, vibe”. Give us “singing, dancing, cooking… fuck all my friends and give me babies,” he tells her. “Standing here, every second, judged by you” the woman is trapped in a role of unwanted submission. The point around toxic male gaze and female subjugation is not exactly subtle. The feel, one which seeds some unexpected comedy, is of walking in on a suburban couple’s Saturday night efforts at spicing up their love life with a bit of role-play.
Clancy and Stewart have the female character don a dog lead, kinky white boots, and a strap-on phallus at one point, the latter a quite literal response to her abuser’s injunction to “man up”. Armed with said phallus, can she then turn the tables and turn the gaze back on him? Odd, but enjoyable fringe fare and Westerbeck’s great.
Runs until 4 August 2024
