In This Poo Shall Pass Molly Martian shares her dilemmas as a trans woman. With a microphone on one side of the stage and a real toilet on the other, the show starts with a very powerful poetry, said in a light tone but fully charged with Molly’s personal anxieties.
There is a sudden jump to the other side of the stage, where Molly revisits some personal moments spent on a toilet cubicle.
The simplicity of the set design and the lighting, as well as the informality in the way the performer presents herself, creates a very intimate atmosphere which helps the audience focus in on the story that Molly wants to tell.
Her concept of exploring the extremes of disparity between the private and the public is extremely clever, but the way it is performed seems superficial and obvious at times.
This was a disengaging factor, as it was very repetitive. The constant swapping from one side of the stage to the other, as a representation of the private and the public, made the show very predictable.
Furthermore, the two distinctive environments felt quite disconnected from each other. The spoken word is quite captivating, and it reveals Molly’s world through the words and rhythm of her poetry, but the “loo” moments don’t carry the tension established in the previous moment.
At some point, all I could see was a performer mimicking some actions in a toilet while a voice narrates some episodes. There is a lack of rigour and investment in the way Molly approached these moments which took away all the intimacy of the show.
There’s also a visible tendency to make everything look funny as if there was a fear to access an unknown and uncomfortable place.
The most effective way of allowing the audience to enter in Molly’s intimacy, are the projections on the wall with snippets from Molly’s archive of curious Google searches. In those moments the audience is constantly surprised by Molly’s doubts and curiosities having to face the comic and tragic moments of her life.
Although the piece lacks consistency and depth, I feel it is a pertinent show as it offers the audience a reflection about the tremendous transgender inequality that still exists in our society.
This Poo Shall Pass was playing at The Gift Horse until the 1sth of March. For more information and tickets, see https://vaultfestival.com/whats-on/this-poo-shall-pass/