Julia Croft and Karin McCracken pull apart our beliefs about sex and desire in Body Double. Photo / Andrew Malmo
For several years, we've been treated to a mini-quake of interesting Feminist-with-a-capital-F theatre works that break the fourth wall, refuse traditional plotting and experiment with sound, light and smearing food through one's hair.
Auteur/performer Julia Croft (If there's not Dancing…, Power Ballad, Plastic Orgasm) is a driving force, while auteur/director
Eleanor Bishop (Jane Doe) is also a leading light. After their hard-hitting Boys last year, they've created the two-hander Body Double with performer Karin McCracken who also starred in Jane Doe. In short, this is an assured team with game, form and a strong vision.
At their best, such Feminist works impressively offer both novel and memorable theatre experiences and worthwhile conversations. This time, Body Double is a sensory trip, although its theoretical imagination doesn't quite match its theatrical excitement.
In a fun, heady whirlwind introduction ("this is a show that we made about desire and sex"), we're told to expect references to Chris Kraus' book I Love Dick, social theorist Roland Barthes, Titanic and the theory that women are turned on by being desired.
The performers keep up the meta-commentary for 80 minutes of sensory delights: gauze, glass, plastic, sheepskin and fun fur in Lucy Pope's clever design; Blondie, Prince and reverb in Te Aihe Butler's wonderfully transporting sound. The show itself stands in for sex: we see a clean-up and, when Croft wants McCracken to keep up strenuous activity, she says she loves her — the ultimate manipulation.
