Cow by Fat Cow Theatre performed at King’s Head Theatre is the debut show of the company. It is about a trans woman who struggles with her body image as she is, as she identifies, ‘fat’. We all know how difficult being different in a society pressuring us into homogeneity but have you ever just spoken to someone about how they feel about their own experience? That is exactly how this show felt like, an intimate chat.
Cow is a one-person show written by the performer, Evie Chandler. The majority of the show was a monologue directed at the audience. The speech was simple and natural which felt quite personalised, while the various topics the show covered including transphobia, body dysmorphia, homophobia, sexual assault, mental health, problems with the mental health system and the police, and drug abuse, were also relatable to a more general public.
However, the duration of the show was too short to cover all the topics it presented. Therefore, at times it felt like they were too washed over. Although I am aware that all of these are connected to the trans experience, with the limitation of the time, it would have been better to choose a limited number of topics and expand on them so that it would not have felt like different things were being thrown to the audience without much explanation.
Limited use of props and decorations, as well as the show being performed in a small theatre, add to the intimacy of the performance which is the biggest strength of Cow. That being said, in one scene, there is an addition of another voice speaking. Although we do not see the speaker, with the rest of the show being narrated by the performer, it momentarily put back a wall between the stage and the audience, removing the chat-like feeling, which was jarring and unnecessary. I also want to note that I highly appreciated the use of trans flag colours within the lightning which was a well-thought nuance.
Evie Chandler is an excellent performer; I could see the passion towards the subjects handled and she was phenomenal in providing a space where it felt like the whole show was a conversation. She is also a writer with so much potential; while I don’t know how much of the text depicts personal experience, it felt very personal and the ongoing metaphor of the half-bull, the minotaur, which also explains the choice of title Cow, is an elegant touch.
As the show itself repeatedly states, this whole performance was ‘a lot to unpack.’ It appears that this was an ambitious project with so much passion, which is impressive for a debut and shows so much potential, but I would have preferred an in-depth exploration of the individual topics rather than brief mentions. That being said, I am still very excited to see the future productions of this new company, as I can see them doing great things in the recent future.
0 Comments