A GIRL & A GUN Returns To London

Artist, theatre-maker, film buff and Godard-fan Louise Orwin began to wonder about this, and question whether the media's portrayal of women has moved on in the 50 odd years since he made his claim. She thought about this when watching Beyonce's video for 'Videophone' featuring the singer and Lady Gaga dressed in their scanties bearing multi-coloured guns, and the Springbreakers (US film) scene where two teenage girls lie on a bed surrounded by guns, using them as suggestive props... She began to wonder whether anything had moved on at all.

Louise started seeing girls and guns everywhere. She obsessed over them on YouTube, marvelled over them in music videos, felt a bit disgusted about them in video games, and tried not to see them in pornography.

Out of this research a A Girl And A Gun was born, written and conceived by Louise, and playfully performed by herself and a new male performer at every show - a male performer who has never seen the script before walking onstage.

The show's cuttingly sharp satirical script challenges those films that use girls and guns as easy plot devices and the audiences that watch them - whilst also admitting her own confusion, as a woman, at being simultaneously repulsed and attracted to that imagery.

Structured as an exercise in live filmmaking the show asks what it means to be a hero, what it means to be a plot device, and what it means to watch. The man's reactions - and those of the audience - are genuinely spontaneous. He will read his lines and stage directions live off an autocue, the audience seeing some of his lines and directions projected onto an onstage screen. As the performance progresses, He is directed to do increasingly violent and risqué things to Her, and He must decide what He will and won't do.

Expect gun twirlin', play-actin', Nancy Sinatra-dancin'. And me. And you.

A Girl & A Gun has created a stir as it toured the country and engaged audiences in a successful run at the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe. See a trailer here https://vimeo.com/179443401

Louise Orwin is an award-winning live artist, writer and performer. She makes research driven performance projects about subjects that are close to home, hard to get your head around, and urgently need to be spoken about. Her work is provocative and brash, intimate, and generally filled with a heady dose of pop culture. She makes work that gets under your skin, and will stay there days after you've left the theatre. http://louiseorwin.com

From 24 Jan - 18 Mar VAULT Festival returns to Waterloo with more than 300 shows across 10+ venues. Bigger and bolder than ever before, VAULT 2018 features a wealth of brand new drama, London's newest comedy festival with more than 130 acts showcasing household names and emerging talent, an eight week film festival, and wild late night parties.

 

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