52 Monologues for Young Transsexuals, Soho Theatre Review
Written by Russell for Theatre & Tonic
Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in exchange for an honest review.
The upstairs room at the Soho Theatre is transformed into a pink paradise as the performers Laurie Ward and Charli Cowgill transport you into their ‘Trans-world’.
52 Monologues for Transsexuals had a successful run at the Edinburgh Fringe last year and won an Offest award, which having seen the show for the first time, I can totally understand.
You take your seat as Laurie is dancing very seductively to some great tunes as the audience enters and settles. Within 10 minutes of the show starting, there was fun and uproar as the result of some brilliant comedy and generally ‘getting everyone on their side’, Laurie and Charli ran us through the monologues of 52 different experiences of trans people.
The monologues themselves come from interviews which Laurie and Charli made with the 52 trans women and then repeat here to try and help us all understand or at least have more of an insight into their lives.
They are helped with projections in the background that flash up names of the author of each brief monologue. It is all very condensed and sharp and it works so well because of the brilliant performances of Charli and Laurie.
Their physicality, honesty and sexuality is relentless, and the show moves at such a fast pace, that limiting it to one hour feels like a very good idea. But this isn't just a fun hour in Soho, there are some very raw and brutal moments and a very shocking end.
There is some great, if a bit obvious at times, choice of music and some very alluring dance and movement by both Lauri and Charli, who are both naturally born performers, This is a funny, exciting, explicit, scary and brave introduction into what it is like to be a trans-woman in the UK today. On entering the room, you are asked by Charli to spit into a cup and the spit in this cup is used during the performance, not something you’re likely to get at any other west-end show at the moment.
But this is also meant to be a fun night out and the fun is achieved almost from the opening moments
A full house, mainly attended by what appears to be the target audience of intelligent open-minded twenty/thirtysomethings, who loved the show and lapped up the comedy and the drama in equal measures.
I hope that it can eventually expand its audience and have an impact on all walks of society, because it feels like in the room tonight they are pretty much preaching to the converted. But what a sermon it is. At times there is absolute uproar with the brilliantly timed and subtle humour and there is utter shocked silence as the audience takes on board the brutal reality of how their lives can be.
52 Monologues For Young Transsexuals is a must see show for anyone who wants to understand more about what it is like to be a trans person. It was a wild and crazy ride from two wild and crazy girls. I highly recommend it to anyone.
At Soho Theatre until 16 March.
☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
