Guest Blog: Brian Logan Introduces Feminist Festival CALM DOWN, DEAR at Camden People's Theatre

Autumn 2016. Comedian Amy Schumer, visiting the UK, tells the BBC that anyone who doesn't identify as feminist must be "insane". Olympic gold medallist Laura Trott, in an article addressing her passion for involving girls in sport, tells the Guardian, "I wouldn't say I'm a feminist. It's a funny word, isn't it?" New London Mayor Sadiq Khan tells Red magazine, "I'm obsessed with being a feminist in City Hall," while distinguished columnist Suzanne Moore writes in the New Statesman, "I hate all men... I once made exceptions. I was wrong."

Say what you like about fourth-wave feminism - just don't call it homogenous. At Camden People's Theatre, we'll be reflecting that tumultuous variety in our fourth annual festival of innovative feminist performance, Calm Down, Dear, beginning next week.

That argument about whether men can be feminists, or should be hated? We've got it covered. Feminist comedy? Well, we don't have Amy Schumer, but we've got Karen Hobbs's Tumour Has It ("quirky, heartfelt comedy at its best," said the Edinburgh reviews). All we're missing is the Laura Trott perspective: there's no one squeamish about "the F-word" at our festival, even if the battle lines are drawn across what it means.

When it launched in 2013, we never intended Calm Down, Dear to be anything other than a one-off. Back then, it featured Bridget Christie's A Bic for Her, Louise Orwin's extraordinary Pretty Ugly, and Adrienne Truscott's controversial Asking for It. It was massively successful, and our audience - and artists, too - made it clear they wanted it back.

Featuring killer acts like Sh!t Theatre, Hanna Silva, Milk Presents, Fuel Theatre and many more, the festival has pretty much programmed itself ever since. There's just so much provocative and playful work out there from cutting-edge theatre-makers, grappling with gender and patriarchy, equality and liberation, as experienced at the midpoint of the new century's teens.

The first week of CDD16 is headlined by a show that won The Stage Award at Edinburgh last month: BLUSH by Snuffbox Theatre. It explores the phenomenon of 'revenge porn'. Watch it, and you'll think this is a uniquely awful concern for 21st-century women - until you see (for example) CrossLine Theatre's Cream Pie, about internet porn more widely, or Elisabeth Carlile's Hush Now My Darling, about the pressure to be maternal, or Imogen Butler-Cole's Foreign Body, about healing after sexual assault.

It really is an eclectic programme, offering a panoramic overview of sexism and gender inequality 2016-style. But there's nothing oppressed about these artists, or their shows. Humour, beatboxing and pole-dancing are in the mix; the only thing these artists have in common is their commitment to entertaining you in unexpected ways.

And their gender, you might think. But you'd be wrong. We've got more male artists in Calm Down, Dear than ever before. The last year or two has seen a surge of interest in masculinity, in or out of crisis. More and more men seek to interrogate their gender, and their role in persistent inequality.

Should we resist that, and keep our festival all-female? We chose instead to let men in on the conversation, and as a result, we've got the spoken word/hip-hop artist Testament's brand new Privilege Show, alongside Olly Hawes's newbie The Absolute Truth about Absolutely Everything (such a male title!) and Tom Ross-Williams's show about transcending gender norms, Give Me Your Skin - made in cahoots with Oonagh Murphy.

Maybe we should have kept the door closed to all these blokes? If you think so, join us at our Men & Feminism panel discussion on 7 October, and make that point. Elsewhere in the festival, on 4 October, we're pulling apart Women, Politics & Power with Green Party mayoral candidate Sian Berry, among others. Is the rise of Theresa May - and Hillary Clinton, maybe - a boon for feminism, or an irrelevance?

I can't promise you answers. I can promise you lively conversation, entertainment, some righteous rage, a selection of excellent drinks at the bar, mind-blowing theatre and very affordable tickets. As Amy Schumer would undoubtedly say, you'd be insane to miss it.

Calm Down, Dear 2016 is at Camden People's Theatre 20 September-9 October

Picture credit: Caleb Wissun-Bhide, The Other Richard

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