Polly Wiseman is the writer and performer of Femme Fatale which tours Sussex 21st September to 3rd October before arriving at The Omnibus Theatre 8th – 28th October.
This imagined meeting between activist Valerie Solanas and singer Nico asks what might have happened if two female visionaries with very different methods had locked horns. With women’s ownership of their stories, their image and their bodies still firmly on the news agenda, Femme Fatale draws parallels between 60s feminism and today, and throws into relief how much further there is to go.
Tour details for Femme Fatale by Polly Wiseman can be found here.
Femme Fatale is touring Sussex before a run at The Omnibus, what can you tell us about it?
Set in 1967, Femme Fatale is an imagined meeting between Andy Warhol’s muse, Nico and his would-be assassin, Valerie Solanas. Nico, singer with The Velvet Underground and Warhol Superstar, waits to shoot his latest movie when her room is invaded by radical feminist Valerie Solanas. She wants the celebrity’s help to spread her message of female revolution, but Nico only craves drugs to insulate her from her pain. But perhaps these two iron-willed opponents could change their futures, if only they would become allies… A darkly comic drama about fame, failure and feminism, it features original writing, live music, Super 8 footage and stand-up in an intimate cabaret setting. The show draws parallels between 1960s feminism and now.
What inspired you to write Femme Fatale?
It’s still really hard, as a woman, to live an unconventional life and be celebrated for it. I think it’s high time that changed – which is why I wanted to write about Teutonic junkie Nico and ‘feminazi assassin’ Valerie Solanas. Both revolutionaries, in their different ways, their legacy has been all but ignored, in favour of more compliant and prettily-packaged women. But thirty years after they both died, their work continues to inspire artists and activists working today.
As singer with The Velvet Underground, Nico exuded Ice Maiden cool. But she grew to hate her glamorous blond image and in her solo career, dyed her hair brown, became a heroin addict and pioneered a whole new genre of music as the ‘Godmother of Goth’. Clearly, there were dark roots beneath the shiny blond surface. Valerie Solanas is remembered (when she ever is) as the angry psycho who shot Andy Warhol, but she was an influential second wave feminist. When I read her 1968 SCUM Manifesto – Society For Cutting Up Men – I found it both hilarious and utterly relevant. Realising Valerie and Nico had been in the same Warhol movie (I, A Man), an idea started to form: what would happen if I put these two uncompromising characters in a room together? As the 2017/18 revelations of sexual abuse in Hollywood came to light, I started to consider Valerie’s shooting of Andy Warhol as an early #TimesUp moment. The time seemed ripe for a reimagining of two female pop culture icons, battling for control of their own destinies.
As a writer, my obsession is telling the stories of outsider women – which both Valerie and Nico were, coping with mental illness, poverty, addiction, abuse and in Valerie’s case, homelessness, begging and sex work. They used gallows humour as a survival tactic, so my play is a dark comedy. And it’s a cabaret-play, because I wanted the characters to be able to interact directly with the audience and throw in to relief what’s changed for women and what hasn’t.
What’s the biggest challenge for you when it comes to performing something that you’ve also written?
It’s hard not to judge the script as we rehearse, thinking “I wish I’d written that line better!” Currently, I’m cursing myself for writing a part where I have to sing in German whilst playing the harmonium to an insanely fast 80s synth backing. Why did I do that to myself?
I actually found it much easier to write Valerie: she’s very direct and outspoken. Sophie Olivia, who plays her, has natural warmth & likeability, which makes the audience listen to and respect a character who could otherwise be off-puttingly didactic.
Nico’s reserved and secretive and lies about everything. She’s more unknowable to me, both as a writer and actor. But it’s fascinating to try to get under her skin…
Tell us how music and super-8 film blend in to the performance?
Nico was a singer and musician, so we integrate some of her songs in to the show and I play a harmonium, as she did in her solo career. The musical interludes show her changing sense of herself and give a taste of her pioneering music – also of the musical landscape of the 60s/70s/80s.
The film element touches on the character’s pasts and cultural constructions of womanhood (and manhood) via found footage. It shows glimpses of key feminist moments, from 1967 to the present day – and finally, it reflects the character’s state of mind as the drama reaches a climax.
These elements hopefully give the show a rich texture and a resonance beyond the character’s specific situation in 1967 New York.
What are you looking forward to most about taking it out on tour?
Meeting new audiences in different places! Especially in my hometown of Lewes, where I haven’t performed since I was a teenager and where we’re also running a workshop to make a new feminist Manifesto and a q&a with a forensic psychologist. I’m very much enjoying working with Nathan Evans, our fab director and Sophie Olivia, who is a fantastic Valerie and our great team: Olivia Presto, Sally Hardcastle and Sophie Bailey. I’m sure we’ll have adventures together on tour! And I’m so happy to be reigniting Fireraisers, my Sussex-based theatre company that’s been on hiatus for five years.
What would you say to anyone thinking of coming to see Femme Fatale?
First of all – thank you! And you definitely should come. Especially if you like unconventional, intimate and darkly comic new writing in a relaxed cabaret-style setting.
Alongside the performances, we’re making a new feminist Manifesto for 2019 – which we’d love you to contribute to after the show. We’re also looking for online contributions: use the hashtag #SCUM2019 on Twitter and Instagram, or go to our website www.fireraisers.org.uk to state your demands.
Tour details for Femme Fatale by Polly Wiseman can be found here.
