Review: The Evolutionary and Inescapable Rotting of Girlhood, Edfringe

Greenside @ George St, Forest Room

The Evolutionary and Inescapable Rotting of Girlhood is a brilliant name for a show, isn’t it? It has connotations of growth and decay, the grotesque and a touch of gender politics. Advertised as containing puppetry, it sounds like just my cup of tea. Sadly the staged work does not match my imagined vision.

This episodic show covers aspects of the female experience in short scenes played out by five actors accompanied by two guitarists. It’s a playful piece, funny at times and has some nice musical moments but really feels like a work in progress.

The performers themselves are not without talent but their characters are under-defined, just as the piece as a whole is unstructured, and the lack of clarity leaves things at times feeling stilted. The staging is an unsophisticated version of a female bedroom, with washing and undies hung out to dry in the background – possibly a metaphor for ideas of intimate revelation under discussion? It’s not clear. The props too are basic, and didn’t always work, which comes across as clumsy and underprepared. As for the puppetry, well there is one puppet and it doesn’t really add a great deal. The lighting states are indistinct, so there’s no sense of moving between environments, or temporal shifts. The whole thing just needs all round tightening up.

The stories themselves are rather generic commentaries on periods and growing up, societal expectations and so forth, which get a few laughs of recognition. Yes, tampons and thongs are mildly amusing, but there’s so much more that could be said about the 21st century lives of young adults.

Troublingly, as a production about the female experience, the theme is undercut by having two males playing guitar – in between reading books labelled “porno” – sitting right at the front of the stage. If the show is about women why are men placed so prominently, visually prioritised over the action? The duo play and sing beautifully but there’s no real connection between the music and the narratives.

Some audience interaction involving balloons as sacrifices for boob development feels levered in and is over in a flash. The end of the show sees a sentimental gush of emotion from the pals (who all love each other!) that is far removed from the title.

Much as this is an enthusiastic production, it is currently not ‘evolutionary’ and would benefit from a dramaturg to pull the disparate parts together, reshaping in order to guide the audience through the different topics with some structure or at the least connectivity; to help us understand why we should care about these people and their lives.

I’d save the brilliant title for another show too, while working out more specifically what this production is actually trying to describe.

Created by Payton Oswald
Directed by Dylan Carter and Payton Oswald
Produced by Good Grief Theatre Company

The Evolutionary and Inescapable Rotting of Girlhood plays as part of the Edinburgh Fringe until 24 Aug. Further details and how to book can be found here.