tasteinyourmouth present the UK Premiere of their intimate, site-specific theatre show, You’re Needy (sounds frustrating) – after receiving nominations for Best Production and First Fortnight Award during their sell-out Dublin Fringe Festival 2023 run.
Skewering the dark undertones of the pastel pink wellness industry and the ways in which it plays on women’s insecurity, You’re Needy (sounds frustrating) invites one audience member at a time to the world of Carrie, who has retreated to her bathroom in the pursuit of wellness, solitude, and perfection. She spends her days taking long, tea-infused baths, and applying SnailMucusWhalePlacenta Face Masks (™), whilst living off of slim noodles and endless cups of coffee. Assuming the role of a support worker, audience members individually enter Carrie’s world, and attempt to coax her back into reality and reintegrate her into society.
Carrie’s state of mind within You’re Needy (sounds frustrating) is inspired by hikikomori, the Japanese phenomenon of young people retreating to solitude, usually within their parents’ homes. The audience’s position within this comes from the custom of ‘Rental Sisters’, people who voluntarily visit these withdrawn individuals to encourage them to re-enter society.
Created by tasteinyourmouth, performed by Laoise Murray and Heather O’Sullivan, with direction from Grace Morgan and original material and dramaturgy by William Dunleavy, You’re Needy (sounds frustrating) is an uncanny, feminist, and intimate multi-disciplinary piece that explores how capitalism seeks to control women’s bodies through the concept of ‘wellness’.
Touching on meditation, medication, manifestation and other aspects of this increasingly profitable industry, Carrie brings you into the obsessive, lonely, and ‘peaceful’ world of her parent’s bathroom – where vaginal snake oil and Gwyneth Paltrow reign supreme.
