Kiss Kiss Slap Slap review: A despairing panorama of rape culture

KISS KISS SLAP SLAP

Smock Alley

★★★

Although beginning and ending with the positivism of #MeToo, most of Chaos Factory’s physical theatre is a despairing panorama of rape culture, from cat-calls to abuse. Common to all is men’s sense of entitlement over women’s bodies, but so too is society’s indifference to the victim and everyday humiliation of women. Black humour, clever imagery and caustic physicality are deployed side-by-side: the breezy acceptance by a TV interviewer of “stealthing” (already a handy euphemism for rape) leads to an upright demonstration on a trampoline. But the consequential aftermath is a skin-peeling depiction of defilement.

Other sections had less impact: the anti-rape cloak metaphor felt unrealised and the ending was somewhat rushed. Based on chaos theory – small causes having larger effects elsewhere – the work is also local and Newtonian. A melon in a bucket caught in a cycle of being smashed, cared for and recovered shows the importance of looking out for each other.