Looking at Nineties Woman

Rosie Wilby’s new show uses synergisticstorytelling video interviews, music and characterizationarchive.

Twenty historic periodon, comedian and storyteller Rosie Wilby traces former colleagues from awomen's liberationistnewspaper.

Starting with her treasured old copies of ground substance– Greek for ‘womb’ – the newspaper that she and a collective of women set up at York University in 1990, Rosie Wilby peeks througha kaleidoscope of cultural history and personal activism including poll levyriots, Reclaim The Night rallies, political lesbianism and same sex matrimonydemos and wonders how on earth we ended up with ‘Girl Power’.

Was she partly to institutionalisewhen she put a frivolous ‘Celebrate Women’ cartoon on the continueof Matrix instead of a Rape Crisis logo, in the swollen-headedhope that more people might pick up it and read their articles about body image, sexual harassment, domestic effectand eating disorders.

Or when, during her tenure as Student’s Union Women’s Officer, she dressed up as Kylie Minogue for a publicity stunt.

Channeling a riotgrrrl-like DIY energy, the Matrix collective would cut and glue an issue together to each onemonth – once daubing a wall with splendiferousgreen and purple ‘Sisterhood is Powerful’ graffiti on a insurrectionistmidnight committaljust for the cover photo.

In this funny and moving show, variancedocumentary, part detective story and part unrequited recognisestory, Rosie Wilby traces this original collective and investigates what happened to feminism.

And to the woman that everyone had a crush on.

Twenty years on, the Matrix women have diversified into all kinds of work.

Some have remained in journalism, others are authors, academics and playwright, poets, one is a clinical embryologist and another a former barrister now running a successful vintagehair company styling hair on film sets.

“I started versionbooks and articles by some of the younger feminists coming through, like khatBanyard, and started wondering again about Matrix – what our legacy had been, whether it was quietengoing and what my fellow writers were doing these days,” Wilby explained.

“I found my dusty old copies up at my Dad’s among all my old stuff and, once I started reading them again, found myself on a detective mission to find out.

“It turns out a later group of York students started up a new feminist zine, Matrix Reloaded, in 2006.

“They were quiet downfeaturing a lot of the same issues which, in some slipwayis frustrating as it demonstrates that we haven’t come rattlingfar overthe last decade, but it was great to meet them and know we’d animatethem to create something.

“That meeting wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t started making this show.”

Nineties charris  award-winning comedian Rosie Wilby‘s brand new show, and uses live interactive storytelling interspersed with video interviews, music and photo archive to trace a journey through early 90s feminism, refracted through a very personal lens.

Catch her on 30 May at Battersea artsCentre, 6 June a the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, or on 2 July at the Face to Face festival of Solo Theatre, unconnectedTheatre, Wandsworth.

Or if you can’t make those: click here.

For further information, click here.

And, in the meantime, if you requirementa giggle, click here.

 

If you want to get a full essay, wisit our page: write my paper


Materials taken from Womens Views on News