EDINBURGH 2023: STARK BOLLOCK NAKED Guest Blog

Larisa Faber guest blogs for BroadwayWorld about bringing Stark Bollock Naked to the 2023 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

When I turned 30, I turned into a cliché. I went from STRONG INDEPENDENT WOMAN to sTroOnG inDepENDtthhh Wo... fizzling out, like a stale fart. My mental health in tatters, my self-esteem shattered. I'd always prized my brain and now it was letting me down, mucked about by some hormones. Suddenly, the biological clock and my (ageing) ovaries were watching me: Are you? Are you gonna? Are you gonna PROCREATE? Or are you? Gonna let us DIE? Ovaries are very dramatic. I stay silent. YOU ONLY HAVE A LIMITED AMOUNT OF EGGS! I look away. This seems like a you-problem, I say. Selfish b*tch, they mutter.

Some people have a clear idea, it seems: they do or don't want to have children. They have a plan. I love a good plan, but I'd never really planned for that. It always seemed so far away. I still had so much to accomplish. I felt so immature, so not adult, so still crippled by coping mechanisms I hated, but couldn't quite undo: a fake adult, an imposter, a people pleaser

Years have passed since that fateful birthday. I now feel compassion for 30-year-old me. Making Stark Bollock Naked has truly been a saving grace, allowing me to unpack the pressures I felt and the abortion stigma I faced. This show grew my confidence as a human and a theatre maker: for the first time, I'd let my creative inner child run free. We did a WIP at Camden People's Theatre (CPT) in 2019 and I remember thinking: OK, so this is supposed to be funny. I'm taped up, a bare body. There's video mapping on me. And there's a musician next to me playing the speculum. If nobody laughs, it's gonna be a long 20 minutes to stand around in sticky tape.

Thankfully, people did laugh and connect with it. We went on to make a full show. We sold out at CPT, then in Luxembourg. We got a VAULT Festival award nomination and a nomination for "Best New Show" at the Luxembourg Theatre Awards. And now I'm at the Fringe, with my co-performers and speculum-players, Shamira Turner & Eugénie Pastor (a.k.a. She Goat - check them out, give them a follow). If you've ever felt the pressure yourself, the loneliness, the confusion. If you've ever felt the speculum's metal sharpness. If you've had an abortion and felt shamed for it. Join us.

And so here we are, you overbearing ovaries. I sorted you out: mind over matter. A STRONG INDEPENDENT WOMAN, thank you very much. But I don't want to end on such an acrimonious note and I do forgive you, you egotistical eggs.

Rather, after so much me-time, I've asked my co-performers Shamira & Eugénie to add some thoughts: How would you describe our show in 3 words?

Shamira: Goofy. Truthful. Surprising. Who is the show for? Eugénie: Anyone who wants to experience boundary-pushing but funny and accessible experimental performance, anyone interested in reproductive justice.

Any advice for Fringe first-timers?

Shamira: Leave some gaps in your day for the unplanned. I think it's part of the Fringe experience to take a chance on something simply because you had a chat with the person flyering or it was on nearby when you were free. Don't overthink it. You might just discover something you didn't expect you'd love. You will support someone trying to reach people with something they made. Support, experiment, and pack for wet weather. Your show recs?

Shamira: Evil Beautiful Things by Theatre Ad Infinitum, Salty Irina written by Eve Leigh, Body Show by Frankie Thompson & Liv Ello and Lucy & Friends by Lucy McCormick. Eugénie: Also The Death & Life of All of Us by Victor Esses.

(P.S. AHEM, sorry. Larisa's ovaries here. Hi! The biological clock did get to her - mind over matter, sure - and she's still incontinent, 2 years postpartum. That just about tells you everything you need to know about her. Now whether we are overbearing and egotistical - we'll leave that one up to you to find out. Mwah*)

Tickets: https://assemblyfestival.com/whats-on/stark-bollock-naked/

Venue: Assembly Roxy Downstairs Dates & Time: 2-28 August (8,15, 22 off), 3.10 pm

National Showcase: Official Luxembourg Selection More info: www.larisafaber.com

IG: @larisa.faber @shiminira @eugenie_pastor

Photo credit: Jeannine Unsen

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