Fringe Play Reviews

Winnipeg Free Press - ONLINE EDITION

Raunch

By: Alice Nelson, Jacqueline Russell, TJ Dawe

Alice Nelson and Jacqueline Russell / Calgary, AB

07/18/2009 4:47 PM | Comments: 0 (including replies) Our Rating:

Despite the titillating title and the sexy posters, Raunch! is actually an examination of "female chauvinist pigs" based on a non-fiction book by feminist author Ariel Levy. Gee, sounds like fun.

Raunch

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Well, it is fun — as well as hilarious, instructive, enraging, thoughtful and sad. The Calgary duo of Alice Nelson and Jacqueline Russell turn what could be drearily didactic material — are women who exploit their sexuality actually empowering themselves? — into a series of snappy sketches.

They look into Hooters, the troubling Girls Gone Wild phenomenon, breast implants (the couple’s bickering as a pair of mismatched boobs is priceless) and sexually precocious youngsters in a skit in which two adorable pigtailed puppets wearing T-shirts reading "Jailbait" and "Spank me" engage in girlish talk about fellatio and how Bratz dolls are "hooker chic."

The performers/writers are both adept — Nelson’s awkward flapping about during a strip-fitness class is painfully funny, as is Russell’s portrayal of the vampy instructor — and though the plays’s overall tone is brazen and flippant, it has sobering aftershocks.

— Jill Wilson

From the official Fringe program:

Wet t-shirt contests, strip-to-stay-fit classes and Girls Gone Wild: is this what a "post-feminist" world looks like?

In a performance that leaps from Kinderwhores to MILFs, pole dancing to labioplasty, Alice Nelson and Jacqueline Russell examine the new brand of female empowerment: the "Female Chauvinist Pig".

Inspired by the work of renowned feminist author Ariel Levy, Raunch asks the question: by exploiting our sexuality, are women further ahead…or falling behind?

Warnings: Subject Matter, Language, Nudity,
RECOMMENDED: Mature Audience

60 min.

Venue#1 MTC Backstage at the Mainstage 174 Market Ave (Entrance on John Hirsch Pl)

Tickets: $9
Under 14 not admitted.

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