You can never accuse piss/CARNATION (Charli Cowgill and Laurie Ward) of being shy wallflowers who blend into the background. Their work explores transfeminity a way that is messy, brutal, sensual, and tender.
Their current show Ugly Sisters was a big hit at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe and is currently residing at Soho Theatre’s Upstairs space.
The premise is Germaine Greer and a trans woman who approached her after reading The Female Eunuch, thanking her for doing so much for “us girls”.
Greer returned to this encounter nearly 20 years later and wrote about it in her article “On Why Sex Change Is a Lie.”
More recently, she has doubled down on her views that trans women can not be and are not women, wading into the gender critical debates spearheaded by a certain high profile author.
As we enter the space, having had stickers placed over our phone cameras (why: nudity), we see Cowgill and Ward already in place on the stage.
Ward has a voluminous dress, wig, and a woollen mask pulled over vivid red plastic lips. Cowgill has a t-shirt with the ‘adult human female’ slogan and carries a chainsaw while standing on huge plastic platform shoes.
As the show progresses, ‘Germaine’ is murdered within a performance piece, and members of the audience are asked to help bury her and shower her body with soil.
Ward, as the trans woman fan who approaches Germaine, divests herself of the dress, orchestrates the ‘funeral’ and interviews the writer as she is resurrected.
To describe Ugly Sisters would be to do it an injustice. It is visceral, pointed, and abstract. It can’t be classed as an easy watch or a simple one.
These two trans performers operate with a high level of trust and shorthand, so they can inhabit different roles, swap characters, and engage in a passionate bout of water play and skin grappling.
This show is almost restrained in comparison with the pair’s previous outing in 52 Monologues for Young Transsexuals, but still packs a powerful punch.
In a current climate where trans women are being persecuted on a daily basis for living as they wish, this is a relevant piece that lingers in the mind.
A section in which Cowgill’s Germaine goads Ward’s trans fan about being given away by her voice offers a gut punch of how words can be deeply hurtful, while a scene where Cowgill, now in the role of the trans fan, asks for a member of the audience to braid her hair.
This is a moment of sweetness, as is the ending, in which Cowgill and Ward have an emotional and physical connection in a moment of solidarity and defiance.
piss/CARNATION are a couple of women who deserve their awards and recognition, while making demands of themselves and the audience without feeling brash or disturbing.
They are both endearing performers with a sense of the absurd, allowing their work to display an emotional depth and energy you don’t always see in contemporary theatre.
This is essential fringe theatre for the open-minded.
4 stars.
Ugly Sisters continues at Soho Theatre Upstairs until 12 Jul – details here.