Women’s rights top of the bill as Fringe World festival 2021 given the feminist touch

Sometimes the modern world seems to be all about outrage, but this small mindedness will not dissuade feminist performers from tackling taboo topics at this year’s Fringe World. Touching on topics from misogyny and consent to normalising body hair, all-female casts are dominating the program this year and taking on the F-word through music, acrobatic performances and cabaret. And while feminist agendas may leave some tentative male ticketholders with sweaty palms, Millicent Sarre hopes to address the subjects men are too afraid to ask about — delivering the answers in an approachable manner through her original pop songs and relatable anecdotes. After a sold-out season at Adelaide Fringe last year, she will make her WA debut with Friendly Feminism for the Mild Mannered — a cabaret crash course in modern feminism. Peeling back the misconceptions about the social movement and delving into toxic masculinity, the 26-year-old said her shows were often attended by men she would class as the “hesitant boyfriend”. “I have been really encouraged by a lot of the feedback and response ... on one occasion a man came along to the show with his wife and then they rebooked later in the season so he could bring his teenage son,” Sarre told The West Australian. The performer wants to tear down the walls people put in place when they “hear the angry feminism moniker”, creating a safe space for people — particularly men — to “engage with the subject matter without fear”. “I want people to come expecting that they won’t be whacked over the head with it,” she said. “I have also had a lot of men who have said, ‘I didn’t realise that this was your experience and I have come to realise that I can do these things, I can walk alone at night I can be present in all male spaces and not feel threatened or vulnerable, and I didn’t realise that wasn’t the case for you’.” Off the back of the #MeToo movement and rising levels of violence against women across the country, Sarre decided she needed to take action and wrote the show in 2018. “The content is quite broad and general in nature up until a certain point, and then towards the end of the show I have a song that is called me too, which is self-explanatory,” she said. “I am going to aim to tell my story in the best way that I can, but also encourage audiences to seek out the stories and testimonies of women who belong to other marginalised groups. “(Intersectional feminism) is always at the forefront of my mind. I have tried to be as inclusive as possible in the material and make reference to the fact that these issues disproportionately affect Indigenous women and women of colour, and try to make the language really inclusive, so it’s not strictly about cisgender women. “But I suppose at the end of the day I can only bear witness to my own story.” Homegrown and high-flying five-person troupe YUCK Circus are another unapologetically feminist act tackling taboos head on. During its run at last year’s Fringe the performers donned drawn-on moustaches and well-endowed crotches to make fun of toxic masculinity, while also addressing how simply discussing menstruation can still make people squirm. With COVID forcing them to can most of their performances over the past 12 months, the team are back with the larrikin humour that won them the Martin Sims Award in 2019 for best new WA work. Under the guidance of founder and Broome local Georgia Deguara, their fresh works are titled Deadset and Off Chops, the latter of which celebrates the practice of night-clubbing, getting sweaty with strangers, getting drunk and devouring a kebab on the way home — all things that sorely missed by punters during parts of the pandemic. “Sweet memories of things that were actually so gross and terrible,” performer Ella Norton confessed. “We are having a good time and not necessarily being sexy or beautiful while doing it. “Although being those things are awesome, it is nice to be able to take up space and show we can do other things as well.” Dispensing an unexpectedly feminist selection of shows to Perth audiences, Deguara said they have tried to subtly convey how significant it is to have a strong female comedic cast on stage, fellow YUCK member Brooke Duckworth added: “It is an unexpectedly feminist show, but we are not trying to push any other agenda. “We aren’t going out there going, ‘Look, we are women’, it’s just simply that we are women.” Jamie Mykaela’s musical journey DADDY is a timely response to scandals like R. Kelly’s that rocked the music industry. Mykaela, with her ukulele in tow, calls out some of biggest names in music for their sexist, derogatory lyrics. While she concedes her show may ruin some of your favourite tunes, she hopes to shine a light on how some of the biggest pop anthems are layered with darker meaning. Not only is Fringe World a safe space for feminist acts to take the mic, this year’s festival has also seen a big increase in local performers. A total of 83 per cent of the talent on the 2021 roster are WA born and bread, COVID-19 granting “local acts a chance to get their foot through the door”. “Fringe World has become so big that it can be hard for small and local acts,” Norton said. “It is nice to give the opportunity for fresh meat to come through.”