Megan Ford is an American writer and comedy performer based in London. She describes herself as an obnoxious liberal Jewish feminist who will change the world using nothing but her bare hands and some fabulous wigs. In Feminasty Megan rattles through a series of satirical sketches with increasingly bizarre and obnoxious characters whilst trying to explain what’s wrong with the world today. It’s fast and frantic; there is scarcely time to laugh at one joke before the next one is finished.
The show revolves mostly around feminism but Feminasty also attacks racism, homophobia and the evils of capitalism with a passion. The set is almost bare, just a few garish press cuttings on the wall from the tabloid press and trashy magazines. There is a single chair on the stage; our attention is firmly focused on the Megan. You can tell she believes in what she is saying even though it’s all wrapped up in comedy. A mocking, ironic and sometimes brutal humour that makes you laugh out loud and think deeply at the same time. It’s funny… very, very funny but also deadly serious. How can you tell jokes about rape? Megan can, and she makes it work because there is a serious point in her obviously absurd and sarcastic conclusion that the way for a girl to avoid rape is… not to go out.
Perhaps because of Megan’s American background the references are largely based there, although there is nothing that won’t be familiar to a British audience. There is a sexless, republican congresswomen who believes that guns and cheese in a can are what make America great; there is a whiney schoolkid Youtube blogger who says ‘like’ and uses emojis to write an essay and there is a high-class, curly-haired, twenties flapper girl who passes champagne around the audience; she’s very rich and privileged: “it’s 1928… what can possibly go wrong!”.
Hollywood celebrity culture gets a bashing on more than one occasion. The TV gossip columnist character Tiffany Quesadilla comes straight off the pages of Hello magazine (or is it OK magazine?) She sings a mocking lullaby to one of the few men in the audience and advocates the use of chocolate to solve almost any problem. And another character wonders why the fictional Hollywood star Jack Wrinkleface continues to feature in the movie franchise while the female lead is always replaced by a younger actress.
Before the show Megan herself guides people to their seats and afterwards hands out copies of her ‘zine “A Guide to Revolution (but like, a fun one)”. She is a skilled and engaging performer who makes a real connection with her audience and leaves them in no doubt where she stands on serious matters. She tackles difficult issues in a confident and composed manner and she isn’t afraid to expose our responsibilities (it’s our desire for cheap prices that means shop workers are underpaid). At the end she urges us to break down the patriarchal wall brick by brick and promises to fix the world one show at a time. I’m not sure she can but at least we’ll be laughing along as she tries. ★★★★☆ Adrian Mantle 3rd June 2016
