The Body - Part I: Smudge

So, at the weekend, Ken and I went to the theatre, where we saw John Cooper’s ‘Education of a Lapdancer’ (‘proper review’ here). In a nutshell, it goes like this:-

Family living in London – father Chris, daughter Claire, step-mum Marie, Claire’s boyfriend Billy.
Chris (a teacher) and Marie (a GP) are tired, as is their marriage.
Chris has been visiting a lapdance club. There, he has become a regular of a Romanian dancer, Ileana. He tells her that he’s researching for a novel and invites her for a drink. She takes his card.
Chris gets suspended from his job due to an aggressive outburst.
Ileana passes Chris’ details to Sorin, an East European businessman.
The unfolding story sees Chris become embroiled with Sorin in some shady money-laundering facility for a people-smuggling operation.
Along the way, Sorin impacts on all members of Chris’ family:-
Billy becomes a messenger for Sorin.
Sorin shags Marie.
Chris shags Ileana (who tells Sorin, rendering Chris blackmailable).
Sorin gives Claire the number of his dance club – where she gets a job.
The upshot of all this is that:-
Sorin is shot dead by other dodgy businessmen.
Chris and Marie split-up.
Chris ends up with a bag of cash that was Sorin’s, but that the authorities remain unaware of.
Outcome: Chris has shifted from respectable teacher to someone who questions and acts against the capitalist notion of meritocracy – he is unconvinced that a formal education and ‘playing by the rules’ is in the best long-term interests of individuals… What will get a person (say, Ileana or Claire) further in life: a GCSE or a G-string?

The ‘resolution’ to the play is awkward. Having rejected legitimacy and the meritocracy for himself, Chris then seems to endorse it by spending a chunk of the acquired cash on providing a 3-year formal education for Ileana (indeed, ah bless). That said, it was a timely play and it raised pertinent social and education questions. I remained fully-engaged throughout, as did Ken.

Unsurprisingly, there were scenes that were set in a lapdance club. Thus, we – the audience of about 60 – got to see gyrating, sliding and spinning. Ileana (played by Kate Steavenson-Payne) was a little stiff, which is more than could be said for me. Less-than-exotic was the moment when, leaving the stage, I noticed the great dusty grey smudge on her arse - the price of unpolished boards. Maybe it was because of the very staginess of it, maybe it was because of the socio-political drag that I sensed, maybe it was because I was with Ken, whatever it was, I was immune to Ileana's stuff, oh yeah.

Journeying back to the Midlands on Sunday afternoon, I pondered ‘nudity on stage’. In the past, I’d experienced more explicit and in-your-face uses of the body for theatrical/artistic expression, but I now came to wonder where or how a sense of non-abusive shock (or edge) could be generated around the body. I knew that the answer would be about context, but yesterday afternoon, when I became an answer to this, it did come as a surprise.

Part II to follow.