Review: DADDY ISSUES, Pleasance Courtyard

Natalia, a Polish immigrant, is a painter who struggling to make ends meet. Working on a sex line with a speciality in men with a penchant for young women, she tells us about her life and trauma. On a stage adorned with drawings of vulvas, we hear about the men who call the line and the personal relationships which have caused harm to our protagonist.

I struggled with the show's representation of men, sex work, and feminism. There's a risk attached to theatre which falls back on stereotypes of feminists: that feminist artists only draw vulvas; that they have daddy issues. The script is too didactic to clear any room to move away from these tropes. Its comments on the harm that patriarchy causes ring true and I will never tire of hearing about this, but if Daddy Issues were to acknowledge its stereotypes, actively fold them into the show to throw them back in the face of the patriarchy, that would make it much more robust.

There are some great seedlings emerging. Writer and actor Anna Krauze is a magnetic performer. Daddy Issues has the potential to be deliciously complex: its comments on xenophobia are vital to represent, and putting sex work in the spotlight also. With some work, this show could be a subversive fringe hit.

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