KEN TOWL on the topical, and brilliantly performed, Man or Bear, staged last night at The Front Room as part of The Croydonites Festival
Earlier this week, celebrity rapist Russell Brand was sentenced to 10 years and six months for his attacks on women.
“I was quite shocked,” said Katie Hurley, the co-writer, with Sarah Hehir, of Man or Bear, “but in a positive way because I genuinely hadn’t expected that outcome.
“So often, people in positions of power, particularly celebrities, seem to get away with these things. I was surprised, but pleased to see that the power of celebrity hadn’t outweighed the power of justice. That felt like quite a positive change.”
While a jury of eight men and four women at Southwark Crown Court last week decided that there was no room for any reasonable doubt over Brand’s guilt of one charge of rape and sexual assaults on three other women, there were still those who could not accept that their the comedian and vlogger could do wrong.
“Once again, the comments from many men on the conviction expose a deep misogyny in our society which is why we are so keen to reach as many people as possible to become advocates for change.”
With impeccable timing, Man or Bear was being performed in Croydon this week, as part of the Croydonites Festival.
Man of Bear is inspired by the TikTok meme that asks women who they would rather meet when alone in the woods: an unknown man or a bear.
Hurley had been struck by some of the answers that women gave. “If a bear attacked me, people would believe me.”
Or, “If a bear attacked me, no one would ask me what I was wearing.”
Script writer: Mr Justice Bennathan’s sentencing remarks were echoed in the script
The answers echo Mr Justice Bennathan’s sentencing remarks in the Brand case on Monday: “Whatever women wear, wherever they go, indeed whatever they drink, they retain the right to say ‘No’.”
Hurley says, “Once you start looking at male responses to the women’s reasons for choosing bear, it becomes dark pretty quickly.
“From mansplaining the danger of bears to threats of rape. We know it’s not all men, but since we don’t know which man it might be, these responses do their own work in justifying the question.”
The audience in The Front Room last night for Man or Bear was mostly women.
As we enter, the pre-performance music kicks in. I recognise the track, one I haven’t heard for a long time, Run For Your Life from the Beatles’ “Rubber Soul” album. “I’d rather see you dead, little girl, than to be with another man. You’d better run for your life if you can little girl…”.
There are three women in the play, and we are introduced to them quickly. They are archetypes, the wise mentor, the mother and the adolescent. There are three men who, for the most part, remain offstage and are seen only through the words and the eyes of the female protagonists.
These, too, are archetypal abusers. The most prominent of these is Sam, coercive-controlling Sam, who cannot accept that Hurley’s Paige has left him. Lesley Ewen ably mouths the words of Sam at one point, creating a chilling contrast to the kind, empathetic warmth of her principal character, Connie.
Sam threatens to kill himself, a common trope of controlling men and a topical one, too. It is difficult not to be reminded of David Walliams, who while convicted of no crime, has this week been revealed by ITV News and The Guardian as a long-term sexual predator and groomer.
Sam, we hear, is a good man. This line is repeated, just like the repetition of “Brutus is an honourable man” in Marc Antony’s funeral speech in Julius Caesar. Just as with the Shakespeare, the line sounds more hollow and more ironic with each repetition.
There is a quite remarkable by performance by Amaia Naima Aguinaga as Angel, the youngest of the three women. Much of the action is offstage and we “see” it only through her eyes, which are quite mesmerising.
Bear figures: from left, Lesley Ewen, Katie Hurley and Amaia Naima Aguinaga from the Croydon cast of Man or Bear
Emotionally, she can turn on a sixpence from infectious joy to utter despair with the tiniest movement of her face. She is a very physical actor, her every movement redolent with a strength and a vulnerability that seem to be doing battle within her. It feels like a privilege to be in the audience.
Hurley puts in a convincing performance, too, as Angel’s embattled mum, and, beyond, an everywoman whose commonplace struggles with her ex evoke recognition from her largely female audience.
As the woman sitting next to me said, “That’s exactly what my ex-husband said to me.”
The tension builds. We empathise more with the characters and fear for them, as the smart script slyly drops hints of problems to come. Sam’s off-stage micro-aggressions threaten to become macro-aggressions, Angel has seen things she ought not to have seen, Connie is not comforming.
And all of this is juxtaposed with the bears. Each of the actors gets to be a bear in a bear costume and treat us to some playful performance art. The bears take on cartoonish male characteristics, simultaneously funny and thought-provoking. Bears are scary, but men are scarier still.
This is an important and topical work. It is also entertaining and well-structured, a product, it appears of the collaboration between the writers’ fast-paced and clever scripting and the structure imposed on improvised scenes created by the actors.
As Hehir puts it, “We love a naturalistic, well-constructed narrative within a more playful frame – hence the bears and the very lyrical narration.” If you get the chance to see it, take it.
If you see any other work by Hurley and Hehir advertised, check it out. You will probably see Amaia Naima Aguinaga’s name in lights somewhere soon. She went to the BRIT School, and she’s already performed at the National. Like Thursday’s child, she has far to go.
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