Oh Yes Oh No will have a two week run at London’s Battersea Arts Centre, a maverick artist’s surreal journey through female sexuality and violence, uncovering the power of asking for what you want.
‘Before we start, let’s get this straight: I am performing because I want to perform this, you are here because you want to be here. We will say this is consensual. I won’t make you do anything you don’t want to do… You want to do this, don’t you?’
Provocative, surreal and dark, Oh Yes Oh No is a frank interrogation of sexuality, consent and survival in the wake of #MeToo.
Made with the candid input of those willing to speak openly and honestly about their sex lives through interviews conducted all over the UK, award-winning performance artist Louise Orwin explores how to understand and reclaim your desire in the face of sexual trauma and rape culture, and the power of asking for what you want.
Featuring intricate video design, Barbie and Ken, audience participation, and a heady mix of pop culture references, this show is for anyone who has struggled to find their sexual voice or questioned the sexual culture they were brought up in. It explores what it means to have sexual fantasies that don’t align with your politics and what it means to have a voice.
‘As a survivor of sexual violence I began to make the show by examining my own sexual desires’ said Louise, ‘to reclaim my sexuality for myself once and for all. Making the show in the tidal wave of #MeToo, I began feeling that, more than ever, those of us who have struggled with our sexuality have a duty to be reclaiming our lives and bodies for ourselves.’
‘In one moment empowering and exhilarating, and in the next, full of rage and despair.’ ★★★★ The Guardian
Louise’s previous shows include viral docu-theatre Pretty Ugly about the trauma teenagers face about their looks online, and A Girl & A Gun, her witty, fun and provocative look at the way the media uses women and violence. Both received global audience and critical acclaim.
‘Startling and resonant show questioning female desire and its relation to rape culture’ ★★★★The Stage
Louise Orwin is an award-winning performance artist. She makes research-driven performance projects about what it means to identify as female in today’s fast-moving, media-saturated world that prizes patriarchal, heteronormative narratives. Her taboo-breaking work takes a bold, provocative and intimate stance on subjects that are close to home, hard to get your head around, and need to be spoken about. www.louiseorwin.com
‘Awe-inspiring for its optimism, for the sight it offers of someone trying to do something honest and uncomplicatedly brave’ Exeunt
Trigger Warning: Please note that this show contains strong language, adult content and descriptions of sexual violence.
Original sound design by composer Alicia Jane Turner.
Oh Yes Oh No is supported by Jerwood Charitable Foundation, Arts Council England, Live Art Development Agency, Centre of Live Art Yorkshire and was supported by and developed at Camden People’s Theatre.
Oh Yes Oh No is at Battersea Arts Centre 12th – 23rd November 2019.
