Belgian performers Anemone Valcke and Verona Verbakel have made a show about the ego. Or about #MeToo. Or about transgressive behaviour. Or about manatees?
Or all of the above, as The Ego will demonstrate over its hour of playful, heartfelt, and also quite silly scenes of varying emotional magnitude. Valcke and Verbakel are a formidable double act, beautifully acting as comedic foils to each other’s sort-of characters: there is a tension between the sincerity of their re-enactments of personal experiences (there is so much crying), and the innate funniness of being an egotistical actor. “I’m a nobody”, repeats Verbakel in a video taken of her crying in her car — such Instagram influencer behaviour! — and you find yourself unsure whether to laugh at or pity her.
Such is the brilliance of The Ego: it’s supremely confusing, but in a way that ensures you’re always feeling SOMETHING. Whether it’s amused, sympathetic, or baffled is simply down to your interpretation. For example, I found the most touching part to be Valcke’s random solo performance of ABBA’s ‘The Winner Takes It All’, shortly followed by Verbakel’s crazed semi-clad dance to Marilyn Manson’s ‘This Is The New Shit’. And those aren’t even the bits where they discuss grooming and assault!
Valcke and Verbakel are very, very impressive and versatile performers who are able to flip with breakneck speed between sincerity, absurdity, and everything in-between. This is part of what makes The Ego so successful in its attempts to MOVE the audience: everything means something, even when it’s not apparent what it’s supposed to mean. There’s the extended metaphor about feeling like a shrimp: spineless, foetal, vulnerable and stupid. There’s the final scene about wanting, as a woman, to have the same rights as a manatee: for it to be illegal to be touched by others, without your consent.
Ultimately, The Ego is a triumphant show about many, many things: but primarily, about how difficult and confusing it can be to be anything at all. You’ll also never see Lotus Biscoff the same way…
The Ego is running until 24 August at Playground 3 at ZOO Playground.
Buy tickets here.
Image courtesy of Verona Verbakel, provided to The Student as press material.