Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 81/2/10
Cast: Harriet Wilson, Sophie Smith.
There are just times when you have to congratulate a writer for taking such a logical step that you cannot help but wonder why nobody really has gone there before.
Stuart Crowther’s Gearstick looks at life in which women have been banned, to show femininity a crime, to be born female either sees you destroyed or having a state enforced gender reassignment. Gearstick takes the idea that that too be born a woman is not just seen as second class but an evil in which to be eradicated and in which if you are a woman who has somehow got passed all the checks can see you hiding your true nature, especially hard when you are a Lesbian.
In a move that would make some countries round the world blush at the analogy, Gearstick asks the brutal question of equality, just as there are those who suggest that a world without men would be of a benefit to the world, Gearstick asks what it’s like to be a woman where to be female is the most dangerous prospect.
For Emma and Alison, two lesbians who live together but who have convinced the authorities that they are men, the years of imbalance have started to take their toll, and Alison it seems has started to wonder if it is time to come clean and become the man she is pretending to be.
This finely balanced play could find itself steering into realms in which might be seen as absurd but in a world that at times values the role of women with flagrant disregard, that sense of absurdity is kept in check and instead it focuses on the love between two women who are scared to be who they really are.
This play, which is part of Grin Theatre’s Queertet production and directed by Becky Brooks benefits from both Harriet Wilson and Sophie Smith’s unmistakable portrayal of two women placed on the edge of society that is askew with itself, that blames women for all the ills in the world. Their confrontation over the state of their lives and Alison’s enjoyment of the bulge in her partner’s trousers, courtesy of a piece of French Loaf, is nothing short of beautifully envisioned and whilst the play could benefit from being taken further and extended to take in some of the social ramifications of the law, it is nonetheless a great piece of writing.
Gearstick is a particular highlight of this year’s Queertet production.
Ian D. Hall