Following her hit success at Edinburgh Fringe 2018, award-winning performance artist Katy Dye now takes Baby Face on an exciting UK Tour. Baby Face – winner of The Autopsy Award and Lustrum Award 2018 – is a daring look into the paradox of living in a society that continues to infantilise adult women.
Baby Face is on tour in February and March 2019, tour dates can be found below.
You’re taking Baby Face out on tour, what can you tell us about it?
Yes, I am taking the performance of Baby Face on tour to various locations around the UK. This is a solo show that explores the infantilisation of women. The performance explores the idea that we live in a society where paedophilia is not OK, yet fetishised images of women as pre-pubescent girls are. The show challenges the nature of complicity and conditioning when it comes to the messy moral questions that come up surrounding the idea of sexualising women as children.
What inspired you to write such a provocative piece?
The inspiration for the idea came from a number of sources. I have received subtly infantilising treatment throughout my life because of the body I have, and I was interested in exploring the subconscious effect of this further. I have grown up in a culture saturated with pop references to infantile regression in the 90s and early 00s, I became interested in the process of creating this performance to explore where these impulses to infantilise women came from. My other interests were the imagery from anime cartoons of schoolgirls and child women, as well as how the female voice is used in pop songs/K pop/bubblegum pop. From the cultural to the deeply personal, it was apparent to me that infantilisation runs deep in our society, and I wanted to create Baby Face to find out why.
What have you found most challenging about staging Baby Face?
There were many challenges in the staging of this piece. I feel the ability to create performance material that could be performed repeatedly and still have a strong/palpable feel to it was my biggest challenge. I first started to create this piece four years ago, and I related to the subject matter in the piece very differently then than I do now. In the latest creation process of the piece I found that the more action based and physical my performance was, the more I was able to re-perform the piece and find something new to explore in it every time.
You took the show to Edinburgh, what was the reaction there?
Yes, since performing the piece in Edinburgh I was surprised by some audience reactions. There is a moment in the piece where I, dressed as a 15 year old schoolgirl, ask a male audience member if he finds me attractive and if it’s ok to find me attractive but not act upon it.
I have learned through performing this moment that this needs to be a genuine conversation with no rehearsed elements. I find it interesting as the audience member chooses their words, the tone of their voice, body language, what this contributes to what we are talking about. I have learned there can be such a range of reactions to my questions depending on the individual, and each of these contribute to the piece in different ways. I believe the overall reaction to the show in Edinburgh was a positive one, and I think people saw it bringing new light to the #metoo movement and discussions surrounding that.
Have you made any changes to the show following the Edinburgh run?
I have only made small changes following the Edinburgh run. The performance is very physically demanding to perform, so I have learned from experience that I need to explore calmer moments during the performance so that when it becomes very dynamic I am able to give my all to this. The show has developed hugely since its early incarnations. The piece has been created over a four year period, and in earlier versions it was explicitly autobiographical. The show has become more and more physical over time and starker, more stripped back visually as well. There is audience interaction in the piece which constantly changes depending with the place and audience – it’s a different show every time!
What would you say to anyone thinking of coming to see Baby Face?
I think people who are thinking about this should come to see this show because it is about an idea that is intimately connected with our everyday lives, our personal relationships and how women relate to themselves. In Baby Face I ask people to throw themselves into the show by witnessing it, as much as I am doing by performing it. Come if you want to feel like your inside Snow White’s biggest nightmare and if you love the smell of talcum powder!
Baby Face Tour Dates
7th – 9th February – Tron Theatre, Glasgow
28th February – Â Theatre Deli, Sheffield
6th March – Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield
8th – 9th March – Brighton Dome
20th March – The Lowry, Manchester
23rd March – Â Harlow Playhouse Essex
