Sirens

The Guardian / Lyn Gardner


In Greek mythology, the sirens were femmes fatales who lured sailors to their deaths with seductive melodies. The modern sirens in this terrific return to form from Ontroerend Goed, however, sing a very different song – one full of confusions and contradictions, but also great power and bubbling wit, telling what it is really like to be a woman in the 21st century, dealing with everyday sexism and casual misogynies. Heard the one about what to call the excess flesh around a vagina?

Six years ago, the Belgian group Ontroerend Goed stormed the Edinburgh fringe with Once and for All We’re Going to Tell You Who We Are So Shut Up and Listen, a blistering, no-holds-barred account of what it was like to be a teenager. Now they do the same for young women in a brutally honest piece, in which representation and reality are constantly undercutting each other.

When we first glimpse these women, they are in evening dress, like formal singers in an old-fashioned radio concert. But the noises that emerge from their mouths are surprising, a witty mixture of syllables, half-words and yelps that increasingly seem less a seduction than a wail for help. Shadowy images of pornography can be glimpsed on the screen behind them. Suddenly, these rather prim women strike seductive poses, and start delivering hand jobs. The hands get tired well before the job is done.

It’s that kind of sly, witty truism that characterises this brave show, daring not only to deliver a deadpan roster of appallingly misogynistic jokes, but also to go deep into female sexual fantasy and the way women judge and put each other down. Victoria Beckham? Skank. Mother Teresa? Skank. It’s the unexpected juxtapositions that make this beautifully put-together show so startling and so thought-provoking. Big, bold, brazen, and not a hussy in sight. Only real women asking what it means to be a feminist.

Performances & Booking Details