Writers: Laurie Ward and Charli Cowgill
Director: Joanna Pidcock
A moment of feminist solidarity or a deeply divisive encounter that created a battleground for womanhood occurred when an American transgender woman excitedly thanked Germaine Greer for writing The Female Eunuch. The writer and activist reflected negatively on the encounter two decades later in an interview that this show reads verbatim. This cycle of acceptance and rejection is the substance of Laurie Ward and Charli Cowgill’s Ugly Sisters, which transfers from the 2024 Edinburgh Fringe to the Soho Theatre, confronting the legacies of Greer’s work and her attempts to control the definition of a woman.
Built around a series of connected and cyclical sketches that explore the encounter with Greer and quote her own words from an interview in which she rejected the womanhood of her fan, Ward and Cowgill initially adopt the persona of the two women meeting in the street. This anchor point for the show is carefully managed but constantly reframed, showing not only the hope and genuine joy the woman felt in meeting Greer but also speculates on different possibilities around the event such as preparation for the encounter as the woman describes her hair and make-up routine as well as the aftermath when she reflects back on the meeting hours later, even reuniting the unnamed woman and Greer years later.
In what is an evolving and often surreal piece, there are clear themes of identity and self-acceptance, with one of the strongest scenarios involving the now post-coital Greer and admirer actively trading identities during their physical encounter with Cowgill assuming the role of the activist and Ward playing her counterpart for the remainder of the show. The simplicity of that transition speaks to the play’s open exploration of gender, emphasising the similarities between women that make their versions of Greer and her fan alike.
It is a show that is bursting with ideas that make it impossible to categorise as it slides between performance art and dark comedy with bits of farce, audience participation and many philosophical and sociological reflections on Greer’s work and its both positive and exclusionary impact. In 60 minutes, it becomes impossible to fully develop or take in scenes including a chat show, a funeral with requiem, lip sync segments and the physicality of trans bodies, but they all circle around the interaction between Greer and the woman repeated through time
Ward and Cowgill are enigmatic and inclusive performers, staging a heightened and aloof performance art moment as the audience takes their seats, as well as engaging in warmly direct conversations with the viewers, and there is no shortage of people willing to get on stage to support the vision. There is space for more, however, particularly to challenge not just preconceptions of what a woman should look like – which the writers skewer through their exuberant costume and visual design – but to dig deeper into Greer’s arguments about what a woman feels like and the pain that comes from it that make womanhood a shared experience.
Runs until 12 July 2025
