Review: WET at The Royale Theatre
WET at The Royale Theatre @ Planet Royale
Sunday, January 29, 2023
8.5/10
After a successful 2022 season, WET (formerly Pussy) returned to The Royale Theatre stage to delight audiences with its humorous and candid exploration of sexuality and sisterhood.
Stepping away from the more outright (and Facebook scandalising) title ‘Pussy,’ WET is otherwise identical to its 2022 predecessor, incorporating many of the same elements as the original (a welcome opportunity for those who missed the show last year). It was clear, however, that a year of workshopping and redevelopment had polished the already high-quality show. Many of the returning scenes, and the actors’ delivery of them, seemed funnier and punchier in their comedic timing, energy and characterisation.
WET, a self-described homage to people with vaginas, by people with vaginas, took the form of a hybridised cabaret combining sketch comedy, dance, song, poetry, and the odd bit of physics. Audience members were guided through tongue-in-cheek, satirical representations of the absurdities of medical discrimination, sexism and the erasure of female pleasure alongside more heart-felt ruminations on the violence of gender-based discrimination.
The show masterfully balanced its rollercoaster of emotions, tones and moods, pivoting seamlessly between the funny and the serious, the goofy and the sincere, taking audiences on a wild ride through its deeply emotional and resonant celebration of the vulva. Even in the most hard-hitting moments such as a contemporary dance piece about body dysmorphia, were presented compassionately, with cast members gently holding the audiences’ metaphorical hands with kind words and collective celebrations of messy emotions.
The show was devised, produced and performed by its returning (and exceptionally talented) five-woman cast Emma Macmillan, Alex Nissen, Ashley Nissen, Mita Hill and Jae West, members of the beloved Perth-based company The Hairy Godmothers. Playing equal roles across the piece, including all sharing the ‘MC’ role, each performer had an individual moment in a sketch, dance or song piece, sharing their unique experiences as women, in scenes of hilarity, absurdity, and highly impactful vulnerability.
Macmillan’s lyric and poetry-writing prowess was clear in her sardonic songs and verse, while long-term dancer West brought her emotive contemporary choreography to several touching scenes. Nissen’s role as a quick talking, dismissive nurse was a hilarious exercise in instinctual comedic timing, and a nightmarishly relatable moment for every vulva-possessing audience member. Nissen’s strong vocal abilities were on display in one of the show’s most powerful moments, with a highly emotional and well executed ballad, while Hill was captivating in her masterful delivery of a female-themed physics lesson, making subatomic particle theory interesting, and sexy (a truly admiral feat). The joining of all performers in the finale, in a moment of united vulnerability through poetry and self-expression was a fitting conclusion to a highly articulate and moving performance.
Whether you take it to mean ‘WET’ in the eyes, with its emotive storytelling, ‘WET’ in the pants with its laugh-out-loud hilarity, or ‘WET’ in the loins, with some seriously sexy scenes, you will emerge drenched. This is a show with heart, with soul and with serious Pussy, and not one to miss.
BEC WELDON