Review: Shower Scene

A punchy one woman show about sex work and climate change

★★★
dance review (edinburgh) | Read in About 2 minutes
Published 13 Aug 2019
32821 large
Shower Scene

A paddling pool is all that is stopping a metal shower construction from flooding the stage. Bathing in the middle of this is performer Chloe Mantripp – the great unwashed. Shower Scene is her one-woman show about sex work and climate change. 

The destruction of the environment, be it one's body or planet, is a painful thing. Through the eyes of a sex worker we see the struggle for survival and control over these bodies. She uses physical theatre, storytelling and dance to expose the parallels between the irreversible damage done to both. Where there is a metal structure, there is dance.

With some innovative theatre tricks and acrobatic skill, Mantripp delivers a memorable show – at one point making use of a condom to simulate an elderly man's heart attack. Billed as a dark comedy, Shower Scene has a jet black humour running through its vains.

There is a vivid image created by Mantripp of a body in pain, full of parasites that have overrun the system. For her the body feels alien, unhealthy and decomposing in real time. She begs to be unborn. The dissection of the body doesn't satisfy an audience for long and the interjecting songs feel largely out of place. Shower Scene has an interesting premise but lacks the bite and shock that it needs to provide.