A dark, surreal, and incredibly thought provoking show by a powerhouse performer.
Testo is the latest work by Wet Mess, a drag artist, cabaret performer, and movement director, and is a surreal and dark exploration of masculinity, femininity, the trans man experience, and bathing in butter. It is absurd and disturbing, intentionally so, and does not follow a narrative structure, nor is there any actual spoken word on the stage. The show features snippets from interviews with trans people, some political soundbites, and a red LED text crawl to go along with the striking imagery.
Wet Mess is an accomplished and clearly confident performer. Every movement felt incredibly precise and well thought out with even the more manic moments seeming very controlled and purposeful. I can very much understand why they are such a popular performer and have gained the acclaim that they have.
Despite the strong performance, I really struggled with the first half of this show. A large portion of it seemed absurd for absurdities sake, and while I am sure there was intended meaning behind what was happening, it remains entirely lost on me. It was also a rather uncomfortable watch, with the lip smacking ASMR-esque voiceover at the beginning putting my teeth on edge and the long text crawl section describing having a bath in butter went on for a very long time and I still am struggling to understand how or why this was relevant to the show. That being said, I cannot say that any of it was bad or badly done. It was perhaps not to my tastes and beyond my artistic understanding, but it had incredibly striking imagery throughout and the combining of lighting and sound design created a dark and brooding atmosphere very effectively.
I got on much better with the second half of the show. There were still absurd moments but I was better able to contextualise these within the topics being explored. It becomes clear that this is a deeply personal performance, and will have a strong resonance with a number of audience members.
I left this show feeling dazed, confused, and almost mentally assaulted. However, I cannot stop thinking about this show and exploring why I had the reaction I did to certain elements, and how my experience of my gender expression, even as a cis man, has some parallels with the trans man experience. Discovering what it means to be a man in the modern world. What masculinity actually means and our relationship to it.
In conclusion, this show is good. It is not always enjoyable, but it is very well done and will make you think. It is increasingly rare for modern theatre, especially modern theatre that sells out relatively large venues, to really make you have to think and grapple with the artistic nuances and different interpretations of the work. Although, I still am completely lost with what was being said with the butter bath.
Testo is playing at the Battersea Arts Centre until the 22nd February.