Review-Chastity Belt-Fringe Club
3-5-13
By: Stephanie Ip
Chastity Belt is a one-woman show by the well-known London-based comedian Peta Lily, who arrived on stage in a bright red tutu. She cut up a lemon, put it on her crotch and proclaimed that she was starting a new life of chastity. “Don’t be a sourpuss,” she cried.
For one hour, Lily mused upon the prospect of chastity and what it entails, delving into Greek mythology and Hinduism along the way – or as she puts it, “channeling my inner goddess” – to bring much comedic relief to what could be a heavy-handed feminist bash about why women are inferior to men according to religion and politics.
The set was small and simple, consisting of mostly lemons, both real and fake, and a table and chair. The focus of the show was entirely on Lily. She sings, she dances, she prances, she shoots arrows, she even pretends to be a man. She pulled men from the audience to help with her skits, making sufficient jokes to render them slightly red behind the ears while she plays Diana, otherwise known as Artemis, the goddess of the hunt and of virginity.
What I loved most about the show was Lily’s tremendous skill in delivering her poems. From the very first piece, about what she’s missing out on while remaining chaste, to the last, where she dreams about being a man and being “carelessly obscene”, Lily delivered each poem with a rhythmic lilt, swooned in the right places and punctured each sentence with perfect enunciation.
The audience in comparison was slightly lacklustre – a noticeable problem when the show relied on audience participation in several places. At one point, Lily, maybe slightly frustrated that no one was keeping up with her chastity checks, asked whether people were saving their energy for Friday night. No one raised their hands to Lily’s questions about chastity, and no one took up the chance to tweet Lily and give his or her opinion on what chastity is.
Just the same, being the veteran she is, Lily breezed through, quiet audience and all. Her impressions of the Hindi goddess Durga, of hags, of Diana, and of a man (with lemons for balls) were hugely entertaining. Although, there were moments when the feminist aspect of the show felt a little overpowering.
The chastity quotes that they passed to all the members in the audience was a nice touch, if for whatever reason, people were provoked into an intellectual discussion of chastity after the show. I quite liked mine, which I will leave you readers to ponder with.
“A historical romance is the only kind of book where chastity really counts."- Barbara Cartland.
Alternatively, if that’s too deep for you, here’s one reason why Lily has chosen chastity.
“Porn has made men lazy and romance redundant.”
Discuss.
Chastity Belt is playing at the Fringe Club through May 4th. For more information, click here.
Comments
HKMum
Great show! Agree that the audience must be more vocal for it to truly work well. HK audiences are so quiet, they need to loosen up!
04 May 2013