Blurred Lines at The Shed - National Theatre

I can't believe it's been 2 months since my last blog post! Oops! For those of you who think I've been slacking, I am excited to say I've been writing theatre reviews for Everything Theatre. Seeing more theatre than I've ever seen and loving it (even the slightly less polished shows .. )  Have a look at http://everything-theatre.co.uk - they have a shiny new website too! But tonight I was back at the theatre independently, and still felt compelled to write this review … enjoy. 

Leaving Blurred Lines I felt a range of emotions. But the main one was anger, anger that in 2014 a play such as this has to exist. Has to highlight and powerfully portray issues so many women have to deal with.  Reading the programme I learnt some horrific statistics about women, some that I already knew such as women still earning on average 15% less than men. What I didn't know however was that domestic abuse causes more death and disability amongst women aged between 16 and 44 than cancer or traffic accidents.

The show is made up of various scenarios women face and comments on these by other cast.  The all women cast are outstanding.  Made up of a few familiar faces, they are all strong and admirable women dedicating just over an hour each night to making sure such an important message is heard.  With the overall message seeming to simply be – this is NOT ok.  Discussing her book, The Equality Illusion (which is now on my reading list), Kat Banyard states that "Gender inequality affects women from the moment they wake up to the minute they go to bed" and a lot of us probably don’t even realise it.

Nick Payne has been my favourite playwright ever since 'Constellations' last year, which still gives me chills when I think about it.  And he proves himself yet again with ‘Blurred Lines’ which he co-created with Carrie Cracknell.  The fact that a man can so eloquently and powerfully create a show about feminism just shows that you don't need to be a woman to be a feminist. You just need to believe in equal rights for women. It's as simple as that!

References to the song Blurred Lines pop up throughout this show, and other modern pop stereotypes are explored with the cast highlighting the inappropriate messages that many modern pop songs send out.  Usually without us realising, yes I am guilty of singing along to Blurred Lines when it came on the radio for the millionth time last year, but I felt uncomfortable seeing some younger members of the audience still dance to the song when it played as we left.  A particularly powerful moment for me was when the cast were singing a generic pop/rap song with explicit lyrics.  The typical dancers dance routine turned into scenes of women being attacked and then back to the dance.  It doesn't take much imagination to see this happening in real music videos.  There were some incredibly intense moments regarding domestic abuse and rape.  A particularly powerful moment was when one character is attacked by a man, she then stops the action as though an actress on a film set.  The crew/actors slowly re-do the scene so that she slowly changes outfits into something more revealing, wearing huge heels.  I don't think I need to explain this any further! 

Although there were references to rape and assault which were uncomfortable to watch, other issues covered included women with families in the workplace, highlighting the more “everyday” effects of sexism.   We see a women being confronted by colleagues, one of whom is also a women.  The confrontation starts by commenting on another colleagues discomfort at seeing baby sick on her back and leads to her being torn apart regarding her commitment to the job.  Comments about other colleagues (male) who manage even though they have three kids slowly wear her down until she rightly stands up for herself.  Although having a family would obviously change your life, the complete disrespect for women who choose both which I've heard of is ridiculous.  There are obviously the Dads who play their part, but the statistics prove this is not the norm - 30,000 women are sacked in the UK each year just for being pregnant.  I still remember the day my English teacher told me that she would always take off her wedding ring before a job interview ... I doubt this is something men have to consider.

I still feel slightly in awe of what I've just seen, despite my anger that gender inequality is still so prevalent in everyday life, this play is another step in the right direction at highlighting the issues and showing we're not going to stand for it.