The Gay Divorce
Cecilia Corrigan
Venue: Greenside @ Riddles Court
Time: 8.55pm
Rating: ★★★★★ (5/5)
Reviewed by: Jo Sansom
Join the Warpaint Girly Pop Death Squad!
Take a journey to meet immortal beings, ‘pick me’ YouTubers, a wig-wearing Jesus and an angry worm in this absurd hour of quirky, feminist comedy.
Cecilia Corrigan crashes onto the stage and sets the pace and tone for the show ahead with a riotous introduction to Bufana, an immortal being who has been observing a lot of human bullshit and is here to tell us how to be happy: ‘you have to marry rich’… and she has a method to help us achieve just that.
With her sidekick, Jessica, she begins to unfold a story of capitalism, narcissism and social media sickness.
We travel next to meet a social media ‘star’ who, between wellness advice and GRWM videos, is clearly struggling with the weight of performed femininity. Behind the scenes, her hard-fought-for fiancé is controlling and cruel, and our star makes herself and her world smaller in the desperate hope of making it to the destination wedding of her dreams.
The show then flits between the troubled heroine and a roster of weird and wonderful characters. Cecilia moves between the characters with such sparkling mischief; her enthusiasm is palpable as she pivots between roles, eager to introduce us each time to the next wild turn of the rollercoaster.
Although the show is littered with devastatingly sad references to abuse within relationships (our YouTube star tells us that ‘my fiancé says I’m really annoying when I’m happy’), Cecilia is so adept at presenting these lines all wrapped up in a wider joke that the audience are swept up in her snappy delivery, making for a truly enjoyable show, but one that kept me thinking well after it finished.
As the YouTuber’s wedding and relationship break down before our eyes, and her polished facade slowly begins to disintegrate, we are asked to consider who is responsible for the mental health of those who trade their privacy for the attention of an online community. Does this community owe you anything in return when reality starts to break through your posed pictures?
As we enter the final section of the show, or the ‘End Times’, we find our star has reinvented herself. She has divorced her wife and broken up with the patriarchy in the hope of finding herself on the other side… and bringing others along for the ride as part of the Warpaint Girly Pop Death Squad.
The show does well to point to the absurdity of life under capitalism and patriarchy, and shines a lens on some of the biggest tools of oppression: the beauty industry, social media and marriage.
Both performers give energetic and generous performances. Some audience members were lively, and the two comedians used every bit of feedback from the audience to fuel the scenes on stage.
The performers use the full stage, and often the seating too, as the audience are used to play rocks, trees and animals!
Cecilia works very hard for the full hour, and in fabulous high heels to boot.
If I’m making the performance sound like a straightforward social commentary, then nothing could be further from the truth.
This is a show that sparkles with colour, humour and bizarre characters. With lightning-fast presentation and an absurdist take on the feminist concerns of our times, you will leave feeling empowered and ready to join the next stage of the revolution… and possibly to delete social media!
