‘The Good Body’ by Eve Ensler .


Friday 3rd March


“Eve Ensler takes an inside look at the outside, exploring the cultures of beauty, food and desire” Adelaide Fringe 06 Official Guide

The setting was intimate. Strange mirrors on the back wall. By the end of the show I was able to recognise body shapes in the mirror pieces, but this hadn’t been obvious to me at the start. I had noted that it was probably a permanent structure and nothing to do with the show. The audience consisted mainly of females in their 30’s or older, some accompanied by a male partner, but mostly in ‘girls night out’ groups. Everyone was chatting, enthusiastically greeting new arrivals into their groups. They were ready to be entertained.

The front of the room was decorated with a couch, an exercise ball and various other seats, a white towel and a red scarf. The audience were very close to the couch and so I assumed it would be an interactive performance, with comment sought from audience members, but I was wrong.

Eve Ensler, played by Leah Purcell, entered as the lights dimmed. When the light came back on, she was sitting on the couch reading from a diary or journal. I was a bit disappointed at this time because I thought she was going to read the whole performance. Again, wrong!

She introduced her performance by way of the diary and at once I felt empathy with her desire to be ‘good’, but finding herself more in touch with her ‘badness’. Her obsession with parts of her body she didn’t like was oh so familiar, both in myself and the majority of the female population. Funny it isn’t apparent in men, but maybe I am not in tune with the messages men put out about their body image. Unless they are very overweight, they appear to have better things to worry about. Certainly society seems to put much less pressure on men to ‘conform’ to an ideal body shape. Or is it women who put this pressure on themselves? With the audience predominantly female, I felt a silent ‘Yes! That’s me!’ around the room.

Her despair was apparent in her failure to change her shape with one diet after the other. She longed for guilt free bread. What a humble symbol this represented. One of the most basic ancient foods of life, denied to her by her obsession to conform and be considered attractive both inwardly by others. She had the attention of all the women in the room, they were mesmerised.

As she moved between the different characters, she made use of the minimal props to define some aspect of that character. Towel around the neck of a gym junkie, over her head hood style for the New Yorker, head scarf, sarong, sari, wrapped around her hips South American style to name a few. Her ability to portray the character using this simple method was ingenious, but would have worked equally well without the props due to her fantastic characterisations. These were augmented with background music suited to each character or situation.

There were some loud noises from outside the theatre at one point, but no one seemed to notice, their attention was focused on Leah. This, however, waned as the performance went one. At about the halfway mark, the audience were starting to wriggle about a bit and become restless. One man got up and left, perhaps the call of the UniBar outside the door was too great. Moments later, no doubt encouraged by the first deserter, 3 more men left, leaving their partners to enjoy the show.

She discussed the impact negative body image had on the life of some of the characters, and tried to define its origins. One character’s mother was obsessed with her own ‘perfect’ body and was constantly disappointed in her daughter. Another character’s father’s disapproval led the character to promiscuity and stealing. Another resorting to body piercings and provocative clothes to gain the attention she so craved, but was denied, as she didn’t ‘conform’. “Piercings make you appear complicated” declared this character.

Then we came to ‘The Botox Lady’. This character effected me the most. She was scary, powerful, commanding attention, everyone was locked onto that face. The effect of the facial expressions and powerful voice was electrifying! She spoke fast, demanding, determined, she was angry at what she had been denied - the right to be herself. She had had enough of conforming, “trying to do everything, be everything to everyone”, yet by ‘botoxing’ she was creating a mask of conformity. Behind that mask though was someone who rejoiced in the fact that no one knew what she was thinking, she could finally be herself and everyone better watch out!

My favourite character, besides the bizarre appeal of the Botox Lady, was the wonderful calmness present in the African woman, with her ‘back to nature’ feel. She discussed the contrast between Africans and Americans. Africans are desperate for food, whereas Americans will either eat everything or nothing. They see their bodies as pictures whereas Africans see their bodies as a tool. Africans live in their bodies, love their bodies, celebrate everything their bodies are. She asked Eve to compare two trees, how can you say one is prettier than another? You’ve got to love your tree.

Her boyfriend could not cope with her insecurities and left. She was unable to do anything about it, declaring that “the programming runs too deep”. I can really understand how she feels. I can also see how her boyfriend would not be able to appreciate how powerful that programming is if he had never been exposed to it, especially the way most woman are from childhood.

At one point in the performance she appeared to be staring right at me, lingering for a fraction longer than I would expect. Was she now going to include the audience, was I going to be the first victim? Was she going to ask me to highlight my own figure flaws? Panic, fear rose up in me, and then the gaze move on. Yes, I am programmed too.

As she finished there were many audience members who watched her leave as if she had delivered them from the shackles of conformity. Others were looking forlorn. Perhaps they thought she was going to provide some answers, the recipe for a magic potion. I believe in some she did, but not the answer to how to conform, but the strength to accept and celebrate who we are.