Review: UGLY, Tristan Bates Theatre

Ugly sets out to be an exploration of beauty standards and the perception of women's attractiveness. Written by Perdita Stott and directed by Danae Cambrook, a series of vignettes delve into how five women struggle to accept their image and who they are. Eve Atkinson, Shereener Browne, Samantha Bingley, Hannah Marie Davis and Orla Sanders are the band of sisters who fight the good fight and try to navigate everyday life feeling ugly.

The piece is very blunt and straightforward in the points it wants to make, but turns into a fairly trite and repetitive mantra. The material doesn't truly bring anything new to the plate bar only highlighting that no matter how beautiful the characters are, society still makes them feel less than so - but we already know that. From magazines to family members, their confidence is shattered again and again. However, this iteration of themes and delivery is the nature of the play, going to show how the vicious cycle never stops.

Stott and Cambrook manage to represent the universal female experience on stage with an array of actresses that couldn't be more diverse. Albeit this diversity, their trials seem to be the same, which narrows down their impact when everything is taken into account. The episodic structure of the show flows quite seamlessly, even though there are some sluggish points where the action could be tightened up slightly and a confusing double finale that doesn't fully appease in terms of pace.

Strong performances all around from the cast, who juggle humour and aplomb throughout the self-reflective work. By stressing both the societal and familial pressure women have to sustain, they bring light to the origins of the core problem and the impossibility to eradicate the deeply rooted way of thinking they present. Nevertheless, Stott doesn't offer any solutions and opts to let the thematic lines dangling in front of the audience as a reminder of where we are as a community.

The list of daily battles may remain somewhat superficial and the performance doesn't really serve as a call to arms to combat a beauty industry that's banking on women's self-doubt, but it does unite the individuals by putting them on the same front to notice our similarities rather than our differences.

To post a comment, you must register and login.