REVIEW: S/He/It Happens @ The Etcetera Theatre

Photo by Alice Leclerc

By Dylan B Jones
RATING:*****

Fresh from sell-out runs at Brighton Fringe and Wandsworth Fringe, S/he/it Happens has come swinging and stapling into Camden this month for a tantalisingly brief four night run.

Throughout its fifty-minute runtime, the effortlessly charming Miranda Porter explores themes of gender identity, and how people see their own bodies. The on-stage character they create is an awkward but cheerful office worker, idling away the hours by playing around with their body. They aspire to stereotypical ideals of male beauty, and are hilariously and at times touchingly exasperated when, in their own eyes, they don’t seem to be able to achieve them.

Miranda challenges the comfort zones of both society and the audience, with a wonderfully carefree attitude towards their own body. The beauty of it is that, while the audience perhaps starts off a little guarded, Miranda’s casual and welcoming behaviour soon makes everyone realise there’s nothing to worry about, nothing to judge – it’s Miranda’s body and Miranda is doing with it as they wish, and that’s fine.

There’s also an almost childlike innocence to the way Miranda behaves. It’s reminiscent of the solo bedroom fumblings we all went through as adolescents – self-consciously standing in front of the mirror, pinching things in here, jiggling things there.

S/He/It Happens could also be seen to challenge to male gaze. Miranda dispels the fascination with breasts by making them at turns comical, clumsy, and objects of frustration. The way they connect with the audience is excellent and telling too – there were a couple of moments involving staplers and tape that elicited audible winces from the women in audience, while the men mostly stayed in a dazed silence. As a cis man myself, it was a valuable and intriguing experience.

Another great thing about S/He/It Happens is its physicality. Physical comedy is risky, and difficult to get right – Miranda achieves it with seemingly effortless confidence.

There are lots of things to potentially take away from Miranda’s ingenious piece of theatre – it could be a statement on lack of transgender education in schools; it could be a statement on feminism; it could be a statement on gender roles; but it’s also important to see it for what it is at its most basic level – a flawlessly executed and totally universal piece of modern theatre.

S/he/It Happens is at the Etcetera Theatre until 3rd August. 

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