Her Naked Skin by Rebecca Lenkiewicz at the National
Her Naked Skin Poster
While a high caliber play done by a high caliber theater, director, actors and designers, I found this production to be rather disappointing. It is London , 1913, at the high of the Women’s suffrage movement. Women are fighting for their right to vote and thousands get sent away to Holloway Prison to do time for their ‘crimes’. Lady Celia Cain , played by , a forerunner of the movement , keeps getting sent to prison despite the toll it takes on her already strained marriage and her health. While in prison she meets, Eve Douglas, played by, and falls in love with her.
Considering that this is the first play ever written by a female to ever be performed on the main stage of the National (this a shocking fact in itself) I was very disappointed that it felt like just another feminist = lesbian play. I felt that it was played for the sensationalism of it, as time was clearly spent on the erotic love scenes between the two women and an atrocious and torturous scene where Eve is strapped down and force fed by the prison doctor.
The acting itself was at a good standard all around for the women, but I felt that the men were mere caricatures. I especially thought the husband, William Cain , played by Adrian Rawlins, had a lot of rather unmotivated actions, most notably, a drunken tirade ramping on about his wife inconsiderate behavior. The only person that really stood out for me was Florence Boorman, Lady Celias partner in crime and the oldest suffragette still going to prison, played by Susan Engel . I cared the most about her character and felt the stage come to life when she stepped on.
I walked out of the play thinking yes it was well put together but what was the point? I had learned nothing new, and was, in fact, irritated by the perpetuation of a common stereotype.
