My Life as a Dyke To -The Shequel, Jan 25, 2002

My Life as a Dyke Too - The Shequel  

By Nik Willmott  at La Mama  until February 16. 2002

Reviewer: Kate Herbert, Jan 25, 2002

Don't judge this show by its title. It is not an earnest or over-the-top politically correct show appealing only for lesbians. My Life As A Dyke Too - the Shequel, is a genuinely funny series of sketches and characters. 

This show deserves a wider audience than just the ardent all-lesbian followers of the prequel, My Life as a Dyke.  sell-out.

Yes, the jokes are about lesbians. Don't feel they will not appeal to you if you play for the other team.

They are critical as well as sympathetic, and never preachy or simplistic. The sketches are intelligent, ironic, sometimes self-deprecating and often beautifully observed.

The show is performed by Nik Willmott and Rachel Forgasz  and is written by Willmott. There is a clever comic mind at work in this dialogue and two lovely character actors on stage.

One of my favourites is a scene with two friends discussing the hidden costs of having a new lover: dinners, pressies, phone bill, even therapy after the awful ending. This is relevant to all genders and types of relationships.

My other fave was Forgasz's lecture in Lesbianism 201. She plays a very familiar style of university academic who patronises, snarls, shouts and parades herself sexually, seducing students as she lectures them about the pitfalls and patterns of the first six months of the lesbian relationship. 

If you need a short course in understanding lesbians and their disastrous, romantic and often hasty affairs, this is the one.

A recurring sketch involves a rather self-contained, private lesbian driving to a conference with her dizzy, heterosexual co-worker. The latter is determined to share secrets about boyfriends, clothes and make-up. It is hilarious and excruciating.

The writing is excellent in most sketches. What makes this show work is the clearly defined characters and smart acting of Forgasz and Willmott.

One charming scene is between two elderly women who divorced their husbands to live together twenty-seven years ago but insist they are not lesbians. Willmott and Forgasz capture the imagination with a sweet Miss Marple type with a burly Margaret Rutherford type.

Get over your concerns about this not being a show for you. It is a hoot.

By Kate Herbert