Risque new play at MPAC
A risque new play set in a Turkish bathhouse in 1970s East London is set to thrill audiences at Mandurah Performing Arts Centre this week.
Nell Dunn's Steaming takes an in-depth look at the relationship between a group of mismatched women who meet weekly at a London baths and share their innermost thoughts and desires about life, relationships and the universal experiences at the heart of womanhood, Stray Cats Theatre director Karen Francis said.
Francis said the play followed hedonistic Josie, whose explicit language shocked the reserved Nancy, baths manager Violet, elderly Mrs Meadow and her daughter Dawn and the former free-loving hippy Jane, through a series of days at the baths, where the characters revealed the most intimate details of their lives.
Francis said Rockingham and Mandurah performers Diana Oliver, Tracy Bolton, Judi Johnson, Beryl Francis, Monique Kinnest and Kristie Hennessy would shed their inhibitions and, with glimpses of nudity, bring Dunn's acclaimed play to life.
"It was very risque when it was first performed in the early 1980s," she said. "Some adaptations have featured full nudity, but nudity in the Stray Cats version is strictly in context."
Francis said she had wanted to put together an adaptation of the show for about 15 years, but difficulty in finding the right combination of actors willing to tackle the required subject matter had proven a difficult hurdle to overcome.
She said she believed the story of Steaming was still relevant today because it demonstrated the importance of female companionship and sisterhood.
