Audiences are invited to come along and be entertained (and in some cases educated) by songs like You Should Know Where the Clit Is (a handy user’s guide) and Daddy Issues Boyfriend.
Actor, comedian and singer Gwen Coburn then has fun with Bumble Songs – men’s real-life dating app profiles turned into song.
Gwen explores the trauma caused by an abusive student affair with her improv teacher and, just as importantly, the aftermath of the relationship. She describes it as being when “#YesAnd becomes #MeToo”.
It’s a show that takes in everything from memories of school self defence classes to classical mythology.
After all, the underlying the fact that women are made to bear the consequences of men’s wrongdoings is an ancient truth.
She recalls the story of the beautiful maiden Medusa, raped by the sea god Poseidon then, in the ultimate act of victim blaming, transformed into a snake-headed monster.
In 21st-century America Gwen found that after abuse occurred, despite being promised separation from the abuser and action to ensure a safer workplace for all women, what actually happened was that she was made to endure a “functional exile”.
Gwen says: “This is a comedy show, and a show about comedy. It’s also about what happens to women who experience abuse – not just the immediate results but the lasting aftermath.
“The show is brutally funny and brutally honest. It looks at the way we tell stories about women to women and the need for change, the need to incorporate care for those who experience abuse into the whole way that workplaces are run.”
She sets the abuse she experienced against a backdrop of other mythological figures like that “sad, sexy baby” Venus.
In her own case Gwen faced a struggle with her mental health and was eventually diagnosed with PTSD and faced a major battle to continue building her career in the performing arts.
Sad Girl Songs has toured North America winning multiple awards including Best Musical at the Winnipeg Fringe and an honour for artistic risk at the Vancouver Fringe.
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