Stage

Cock Cock... Who’s There? review: The darkest parts of net dating culture

Dublin Fringe Festival: Why should a woman need safety procedures when encountering men she doesn’t know?

Samira Elagoz’s story is an intimate one, but her performance is cool and detached. The overall effect is both very disturbing and immensely sad.

Sara Keating's face
Sara Keating
Sat Sep 15 2018 - 15:24

COCK COCK... WHO'S THERE?

Project Arts Centre, Space Upstairs
★★★
Samira Elagoz's performance piece is both a sociological experiment and a personal quest for psychological closure. The story begins in 2005, when Elagoz was raped by her then-boyfriend. Using video footage and screenshots, Elagoz begins a journey through the darkest parts of internet dating culture, exploring her relationship with intimacy and the gendered power dynamics of male and female sexuality. Why should a woman need a set of safety procedures when she is encountering men she doesn't know? she asks. The answer is reinforced when Elagoz is raped again, although once more the perpetrator is a person she knows rather than a stranger. Elagoz's story is an intimate one, but her performance is cool and detached.  The overall effect is both very disturbing and immensely sad, revealing the physical and emotional damage wrought by the contemporary culture of sexualisation.

Run finished

Fringe