FASTER LADY GODIVA FASTER!
With influences ranging from Pretty in Pink to The Three Stooges, unreasonable adults to forced entertainment, it’s unsurprising that Faster Lady Godiva Faster! promises to be rather, well, surprising. Based on the story of Lady Godiva riding naked through the streets of Coventry to protest her husband’s unreasonable taxes, the idea for hijacking the legend came to creator Jane Grimley when researching the roots of peeping toms (the original Tom was a tailor who disobeyed the Lady’s order to stay indoors) for her show Witness in the Wall. Grimley along with Caz Eccles and Natalie Randall used the story as a springboard; but the favourite of Newcastle’s Crack Festival and Brisbane’s 2high Festival also mashes up performance art, clowning and drama, with some nudity and a lettuce thrown in for good measure.
What specifically drew you to Lady Godiva story? And how has it been updated for the modern stage?
Something excited me about how we see view images of nude women; what is an altruistic act; and what happens when one person speaks out and goes radically against the grain. I wondered did she ever return? Did it change her? What did it mean for him? Is it the same as streaking at the cricket? We have slapped the story sideways and vamped it up in our own unique performance style. It’s a blend of drunken pub style storytelling and feel-the-sweat-in-the-front-row physical theatre. You won’t see any period costumes, at all, sorry.
In what ways does this show ‘smell of second wave feminism’?
Australian culture is full of divergent and conflicting politics and blind spots, and the terrain can be complex and unexpected. Where do you hide your sexism? Where to you hide your racism? I think it can scare an audience away. It can be really hard to let an audience know that we can laugh at ourselves, and permit ourselves to be less than perfect, and after we piss our pants laughing maybe then we can feel freer to do something about the problem.
How do you transform freeform improvisation into a story an audience can understand and feel something for?
We went to crazy town and back writing stories inspired by some popular female singers. We also talked a lot about embarrassing incidents from our own lives because underneath every fancy cocktail frock is a goofy fool who knows it feels good to fart. Some ideas were purely physical, and the whole meaning changes as you watch the physical action unfold. We unpacked a lot of ideas to craft the work, we just kept going towards the ones we thought were gloriously embarrassing and exposingly beautiful to do, and watch.
What do you think Lady Godiva would think if she saw your show?
I’ve never seen anyone do that to a lettuce before!
Jan 12-21, Old Fitzroy Theatre, cnr Cathedral & Dowling Sts, Woolloomooloo, $25-30, rocksurfers.org
