The theatre company ‘Everybody’s Story’ asks us the question: “Are you part of the 51% that is told to change every part of your body? Laser off all your hair? Cover yourself in expensive products because you’re worthless?” The memorably titled ‘Tea?...(With Milk)’ explores the stories of young women who have to decide whether or not to conform to a society that demonises women’s bodies... which they are therefore expected to change (or modify at the very least) to be deemed ‘acceptable’.
At the start of the show we were greeted by an ominous voiceover: “you are warned that the following performance contains sudden loud noises, scenes of rape, swearing and WOMEN….” Which then was followed by a very long list of, mostly derogatory terms that are commonly used to describe the female of the species … “drudge, washerwoman, assistant, wife, slut…” powerful when heard collectively and reminding us that for many women things sadly haven’t moved on enough in the 21st century.
We were then introduced to a TV show called ‘Solidarity’ - presented by our duo over a pot of peppermint tea, with which members of the audience were approached, in a not unthreatening way, to “drink it, feel it swishing around your mouth, burning your throat.” A discussion about make-up and its importance ensued (“If the cake doesn’t look nice, I’m not going to eat it”) The audience were then asked - quite randomly - to take selfies of their pouting abilities to send into the show “after the break”.
What followed this rather bizarre first segment, was a complete change in performance style with a thought-provoking stylised movement sequence showing a manic make-up routine juxtaposed with the obsessive consuming of detox ‘weight loss’ tea. After this intermission, ‘Solidarity’ continued, with an in-depth discussion about male mysogony and dealing with unwanted contact that we’re so often told to “brush off”; then turning into a story about a teenager’s painful first experience of loveless sex that in turn made teen pregnancy the focus (“where your life becomes walking to the creche in mummy/baby matching shell-suits”); then became a discussion about foot fetishes before veering into sudden competitiveness over their sexual ‘prowess’.
As important as these issues are - and something that theatre as an art form has increasingly dealt with for the last half a century as vital social commentary - this play had the feeling of being extremely disjointed with links not always being made between the numerous topics being discussed. The TV show concept didn’t quite work for me, which not only tried to tackle too many themes at once - thus not drawing the audience in as much as we might have hoped - but overwhelmingly gave the feeling of watching a school devised piece... which no doubt many teenagers would have appreciated and potentially related to.
Whilst I often appreciate work that both encompasses shifts in style with an absurdist, abstract edge, as well as having a strong message (‘Witch Hunt’ currently at Pleasance Dome is a great example of this) 'Tea?... (with Milk)' didn’t really manage to fully communicate its point of view in a way that either had a coherent structure or was fully engaging to watch. Even in the potentially powerful scene at the end when both performers stripped to their underwear and asked audience members to draw shapes on them with lipstick to signify “what you first noticed about me” - I couldn’t help feeling that this was a missed opportunity to refine the original question to get us to think about the prejudices we all have about body image and where these come from.
Finally, one of the crucial ingredients of a successful live performance is to ‘know its audience’. I was a little thrown when comments were made such as “you don’t want to turn up to a meeting looking like you’re 34”... and to the audience: “come on, all you millenials can take selfies!” With Edinburgh audiences being more often than not made up of all age groups, the company may want to rethink this.
Tea?... (with Milk) is at The Space at Surgeons' Hall until 24th August
Reviewer - Georgina Elliott
on - 13/8/19
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