So I wasn’t expecting to see a minge. Oh yeah, spoiler alert there. In fact, I hadn’t read the blurb. Keen to investigate the Wellington Arts Scene and aware that the New Zealand capital’s annual festival was on, I signed up for tickets for the first thing that sounded as though it might be about words.
Ursula Martinez first performed her two part short show back in 2010 in London. It was a response to the response of her strip tease being filmed and going viral; a challenge to the privacy of the internet (there’s a question mark as to how concerned you can be about privacy when whipping your kit off in front of thousands of people, but hey ho).
Tales of childhood and growing up in Hackney, honest reflections on family life and the trials and tribulations of a Spanish mother in the UK, responses to her video, graphic images and observations are all regaled with deadpan and wry humour in a series of one liners. An hour long, it’s a quick and brief exposition of a mind and a mediation on privacy that results on some smiles, some squirms and some satisfaction.
As always though, it’s the reaction and comments from the audience that is both the most revelatory and entertaining.
‘It must be a London thing.’ – in response to feeding a cat Space Dust
‘I don’t get it.’ – after Ursula recounts a conversation in a lift in an East London council estate, complete with accents
‘We are not trying that.’ – a woman pushing 70 to her husband after Ursula posted a picture of a rather gymnastic and acrobatic sexual position.
My Stories, Your Emails
Wellington Festival
