Theatre Review: A Girl Gets Naked in This
A People You Know Production
25/10/23
Directed by: Ava Samans, Hanna Sabu, Amelia Stokeld, Nicole Sellew, Emily Christlaki, Piper Richardson, Alexina Dykes, Sofia Hattiangadi, Tillie Affley, Anya Sen, Morgan Zola
Written by: Catherine Barrie, Piper Richardson, Nicole Sellew, Isy Platt, Victoria Modi-Celda, Loulou Sloss, Scarlett Tew, Hanna Sabu, Ava Samans
Review by Callisto Lodwick
What gets people to go to the theatre? Every year a plethora of student productions in St Andrews attempt to answer this question: something sparse and modern? A seventeenth century comedy? Ancient Greek tragedy? Another production of the same four Oscar Wilde plays? People You Know Productions have taken a different tack with their latest show: what gets people into the theatre, they have decided, is sex and stripping. A Girl Gets Naked in This is a series of monologues themed around sex from the perspective of women. And the title is half true—a girl really does get (mostly) naked.
The set-up is simple; the audience sits in a townhouse’s lounge, looking through a door into a real bedroom, decorated with posters, fairy lights, and most strikingly, a bed and lamp. At the beginning of each monologue the character or characters walk in, tug on the light, and illuminate themselves for the next several minutes. Some remaining standing, but most utilise the bed as a place to sit, to lounge, to fuck, and to fantasise.
Such is the character of the monologues that it feels strangely invasive to discuss them. They’re simply too intimate, the kind of thing your friend tells you, half-crying or half-giggling, three drinks down at the bar or up in their room long after midnight. Suffice to say that some are funny, some are tragic, and most have some combination of wistfulness, comedy, and loathing. Sometimes the audience laughed; more often than not they were snowfall-silent, locked in reflection. It certainly made me consider my own life, my habits, my sense of self: to be in the lounge was to engage in a group reflection. A Girl Gets Naked in This forces you to grapple, not just with the psyche of the characters but that of yourself, your friends, and even that ill-advised hookup you would prefer to forget.
It is a further testament to the actors and writers that each of the characters aren’t just unique, but they feel real and relatable: we have all been the girl in half these monologues, or know someone who is just like them. The set and venue only adds to the immersion, this is real girl’s bedroom, with her real things. And of course, this all culminates when one actress finally strips down: ‘look at this body!’ is the underlying message. ‘Look at the thing that all these people want, and listen to every despairing thing I have ever felt about it. I’m not hiding it anymore: look at it!’ The moment is equal parts tragic and liberating: all the actress has really done, in making this defining statement, is claim the level of bodily autonomy and acceptance that men enjoy every day—instead of appearing in the nude, she simply strips down to her knickers.
After the show, I felt nothing but a cold, scouring frustration, a rage at the world around me that hurts women in this way–such is the ultimate power of A Girl Gets Naked in This. The humour was there, but in its core lay a pathetic desire for women to ingratiate themselves to men. How unfair it all is, the play points out. How awful, that we do this. This sentiment is by no means new: it’s textbook second-wave feminism. Likewise, sex-based performance pieces or essays have been done before. But this doesn’t matter in the room. No matter how many times this idea has been performed, it’s always sobering to see a girl lie on her bed and talk about how objectified she feels. Especially for university students who get to see their experiences reflected for what may be one of their first times. And that mirroring of the self is A Girl Gets Naked in This’s most valuable asset of all.
