BODY SHOP
EDINBURGH FRINGE FESTIVAL

UCL Roundabout Greenside Venue, Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2018
Written by Isobel Robinson
Directed by Florence Woolley
Role: Womb

"Through a skeleton of monologues overlaid with visual art and fleshed out with experimental poetry and physical theatre, Body Shop travels from head to toe to explore varied aspects of British womanhood.
Focusing on the bodies and identities of young women and non-binary people, this play looks to merge ideas about gender and cyber identity with reflections on millennial culture. The body is presented as a cohesive space in which identity is collated, yet also explores the ways in which corporeality fails to narrate all female experience and match with women’s sense of self.
The game is simple: players must take it in turns to collect body-parts and build a woman in the shortest time possible."
I auditioned for 'Body Shop' when I had finished my directing debut of 'The Tempissed'. I found the audition online at UCL and was chosen to perform in the role of Womb. This role was difficult because the character was beyond my life experience. The role consisted of a 30 minute monologue about a woman's experience of being in her late 20's/ early 30s a single, working class mother. She was an online escort and keen clubber, but also talks about her experience with discovering her bisexuality whilst also carrying the stigma of having two abortions and the process of her acceptance over society's misjudgement of her.
When looking into this character, there was considerable debate amongst the cast and crew about who she was, often the writing would contradict her supposed character, almost like there was too much plot in one person. Eventually, we restructured the character together. In the end she was meant to be a representing figure for womxn who have the right to evolve and change their mind when discussing their own body.
Body Shop was a learning experience, we became close as a cast and crew with the excitement of travelling to The Edinburgh Fringe Festival (the first time for me). The show was experimental and handled emotional topics, which many of us had faces as womxn. I learnt how to collaborate in a festival show and to handle the ups and downs that came with developing Fringe Theatre.