Giving a voice to the long-held frustrations of women
Slut Confessions was written and performed by the feminist theatre group Daughters of Artemis. The title alone is an audience magnet – a comedy-drama, perhaps, about the comings and goings of a sexually prolific woman? A commendation of women who enjoy sex, or a condemnation? I went in expecting a strong, sharp, bitingly funny story. Feminist stories will always be necessary, and what better way to celebrate women and girls than to have a title where both words are synonymous with audaciousness?
My feelings towards Slut Confessions are mixed. It was enjoyable in the sense that feminist stories are enjoyable. It is truly exciting to see women on stage voicing the anger and sorrows of billions. The three performers on stage (Thea Melton, Rebecca Metcalf Cortese, and Sarah Tresillian, with the latter two having also written and directed the play) work so well together. Feminist stories are incomplete without women standing together in solidarity, and the chemistry between the three women is evident throughout the play.
Slut Confessions is only around forty minutes long, but it manages to fit in multiple effective scenes. We see the three main characters bonding in the women’s toilets while one of them is crying and in need of a tampon. We see the performers impersonating ‘rugby boys’, manspreading and gawking and spewing vulgarities about the appearances of passing women. We hear, while the performers take their bows, Robin Thicke’s dance hit Blurred Lines, a song that is now uncomfortable to listen to due to the lyrics hinting at sexually assaulting unconscious women (a memory also told by one of the main characters). The play is funny at certain times, yet deadly serious throughout, certainly very engaging.
However, some aspects of Slut Confessions disappointed me. Daughters of Artemis advertised the play on their Instagram account as “the Sl*tiest show at Lambeth Fringe”, yet there were no outlandish antics! The title, while definitely captivating, did not fit with the narrative – the only ‘confession’ was told by the woman who laughed about having been sexually assaulted, only for the other two women to cringe and tell her how horrid her experience was. The play featured two intertwined stories: a) a bittersweet bonding between women in the toilets and b) women tearing each other down in the courtroom. Perhaps Slut Confessions is an unfair title.
In addition, while MANY people in the world still need to be told time and time again about the hardships women go through, most of us in the audience were already well aware of the things being shown on stage! One of the characters was explaining, in a monologue, the “cab rank rule” – barristers in England and Wales are required to accept any case that comes their way, regardless of their personal views – and my mind instantly went to Suzie Miller’s Prima Facie (2022), where Jodie Comer explained the rule with pitch-perfect delivery. Prima Facie is a revolutionary play, and the best feminist plays are the ones that are innovative; hailing the stories and the women before while also being a step up from them. Slut Confessions is not really a step up, nothing new. Still, it is a play that matters, and the three performers did well on stage together.