Sirens

The Stage / Honour Bayes


Sirens may seem a lot less controversial than Belgian company Ontroerend Goed’s previous work but it’s quietly just as radical. Sure, no audience members are being berated as in the Audience, or seduced as in Internal. But quiet feminist revolutions are happening everywhere in this rapt audience.

An ensemble of six women raise their voices against everyday sexism into a cacophony of resistance. They are dressed in stunning ball gowns, clutching black scores to their chests as though they were part of a choir at the Proms. The pages note guttural screams, names and prices of beauty products, stories about sexism, stories about anxiety, a rape enacted vocally that is so real and horrible you want to cry until the actor stops calmly to turn her page before continuing with a renewed sense of despair.

Dodging accusations of shocking for shock’s sake, the inclusion of this rape is made valid by the mixture of appalling realism and cool professionalism shown in the turning of the page. Do you have a rape fantasy? This is what rape is, they say. This is what rape is in all its horror.

These sirens are not enchanting, they’re empowering. At one point an actor comes to the front to calmly explain how she remains safe at night. She always goes home with a friend; if she can’t she projects strength by imagining two panthers walking beside her or if she is approached she pretends she’s crazy. This last piece of advice is something my mum used to do at university, a tactic she advised me to employ too.

The piece has a beautiful form. The choral orchestration sees the performers overlapping and echoing one another, sometimes soaring above, sometimes whispering ascension. The performance is made up of lists, quick-fire descriptions, long-form storytelling, and group interplay so complicated and tightly drilled it’s virtuosic. There’s a sisterly feeling to their collaboration that binds them together even as they each personally open up.

Some parts we’ve seen before – such as the section where a series of misogynistic jokes are read out, but this doesn’t detract from their ability to shock and provoke thought.

Performances & Booking Details