We’re on set. There’s some politicians being grilled by an alternate universe Fiona Bruce, as they generously apply lipstick and eyeliner to their faces (literally faces, not particularly lips or eyes), dressed in babydoll dresses and bows. Our interviewees are Agnes and Maude, populist semi-feminist spokespeople for WOMEN, standing on a platform of… banning men.
This is the central premise of I’m Not Saying We Should, But What If We Did?: a mostly unserious exploration of the potential mayhaps (I’m not saying we should) hypothetical maybe prospect of banning men. Our main protagonists (Agnes and Maud) spend the hour’s performance trying to convince the TV host and the audience of their bulletproof policy, with increasingly diminished returns. It’s an exceptional performance from all actors involved, especially Agnes and Maud (Lizzie White and Harriet Pringle), who embody their characters with an utterly perfected toddler sulkiness alongside some teenage angst, with a serving of calculated millennial performative activism. If you know what I mean?
The plot itself is a fairly loose one, mostly revolving around the aforementioned TV chat show interspersed with the occasional flashback — these sections are perhaps the weakest of the performance, with quite predictable forays into Serious Scenes with a Message™. But the action is usually cut before anything can be explored too deeply, which leaves a kind of jilted impression upon the audience: is this funny? Is this meant to be a meaningful moment? There is perhaps a missed opportunity to delve properly into some more serious, politically relevant ground: given the subject matter of I’m Not Saying We Should, But What If We Did?, there really could be something to be explored around the TERFism of it all. The kind of infantilisation of women under the guise of ‘protection’, the utter vagueness around what policies ‘banning men’ would actually mean, under any sort of scrutiny — but the show remains firmly evasive before we’re shot back into the studio.
But, again, it’s really the acting and not the script that’s the absolute star here: White and Pringle are formidable as they hurriedly and meticulously overlap their speech in their hilarious Southern English (slightly Grace Campbell-esque) fashion. Major credit should also be given to Liz Mckenna as the Frankenstein Fiona-Bruce-Emily-Maitlis, wryly back and forthing with Agnes and Maud, as well as the ensemble (Mukuka Jumah and Abbie Want) who seamlessly blend between their roles.
Ultimately, I’m Not Saying We Should, But What If We Did? is a fun and impressive hour of comedy-drama which doesn’t take itself too seriously (apart from when it does).
I’m Not Saying We Should, But What If We Did? is running until 16 August at Studio at theSpaceTriplex.
Buy tickets here.
Image courtesy of Minotaur Theatre Company, provided to The Student as press material.