Newcastle upon Tyne
Saturday 21st March 2015
Check out the full Live Theatre programme
More information on Hannah Silva’s website
Described by Exeunt Magazine as “weird and unsettling… authentic and deeply considered”, Hannah Silva’s one woman show Schlock! was certainly an invaluable experience. Opening with Silva on stage, tearing pages out of a copy of Fifty Shades of Grey with her own teeth, I knew that this show was going to be unlike anything else I had ever seen before – including other experimental pieces I have seen at Live Theatre in the past.
Experimenting with form, influence and satire, Schlock! is a feminist attempt to “put the female body back together”. With the help of chunks of text from legendary punk poet Kathy Acker, it disregards the recent obsession with Fifty Shades of Grey and allows us to ponder, how much pain are we willing to experience? Who said Ana wanted to experience any pain at all?
The show was certainly interesting and I found parts of it to be terribly moving and powerful. However, I am not one hundred per cent sure I understood what it set out to achieve. It appeared to be both a critique of E. L. James’ 2011 erotic romance, while simultaneously paying a homage to the massively influential Acker.
Hannah’s use of an audio loop, which she was able to control the sound, I found to be particularly inspired. In a way, it highlighted the lack of certainty in the performance. Whatever she said there and then would stay for at least that segment of the show, demonstrating the power of words and sounds to the show – and, in turn, the general population’s long-lasting consumption of Fifty Shades of Grey and its spin-offs.
Another interesting aspect was the use of British Sign Language (BSL) throughout the show. Hannah setting her show up as one that was accessible to all was a touch which I admired and enjoyed. However, there were times when this use of signing only made those who didn’t understand it feel left out in the cold. I could understand that this was intended as a message about the hearing population’s ignorance of BSL but it did leave me, and others around me, feeling confused and slightly left out in the cold.
Aside from that though, I thought the performance was very good. It was well thought out and clearly a lot of work had been put into it Hannah herself. It also, importantly, made me feel motivated to read more Kathy Acker, who seems like a very interesting woman indeed. The resulting impression – coupled with Hannah’s inspirational performance – was one of two excellent and brilliantly talented women, with a plethora of things to say.