The Vagina Monologues

The Vagina Monologues is the first book of 2017 to feature in Emma Watson's hugely successful feminist book club, Our Shared Shelf. I was quite excited to get my hands on this for the book club, as it has always been something I've been very intrigued to read. This paperback is fairly short, at 224 pages, and I was able to read it in a day and a half (probably because I was so engrossed). 

The book is based on the controversial play which started Off-Broadway in 1996. It turned into a political giant throughout culture, with audiences both leaving the theatre feeling outraged and liberated at the same time. TVM garnered a worldwide fan base, and was the catalyst for V Day, a global activist movement celebrated each year on Valentine's Day about ending violence towards women. 

LIZZIE the Musical

After reading some spectacular reviews and looking at a brief, but intriguing show description, I jumped at the chance to attend the UK premiere of LIZZIE the Musical – a brand new show on the fringe of the West End at Greenwich Theatre, after a successful run at the Fredericia Teater, Denmark in January 2017.

  

"LIZZIE is four women fronting a six-piece rock band. LIZZIE is rage, sex, betrayal, and bloody murder. LIZZIE is American mythology set to a blistering rock score. LIZZIE is a new American musical with a sound owing less to Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber than to Bikini Kill, the Runaways, and Heart". - Lizzie Musical UK



Left to right: Jodie Jacobs, Bjørg Gamst, Eden Espinosa and Bleu Woodward

The first assumption I made about this show, having never heard of it or the soundtrack before, is that it is essentially a gothic rock musical. Sitting in my seat, it was clear from the start that the musical numbers would bring the house down, with concert-esque strobe lights flashing in all directions, to the electric guitars scattered about on each side of the stage. The atmosphere and buzz of the theatre, slowly anticipating and waiting for what was in store, really felt like being back at a more intimate version of We Will Rock You. It was evident that the audience would all be rocking out, soon enough. It was also evident that the front row would be in for an interesting night, as ponchos were given out to protect their clothes from the inevitable blood splatters that were to come. After all, the story of the show was inspired by Lizzie Andrew Borden, an American woman, known for her famous trial after being tried and acquitted following rumours that she had killed both her father and stepmother with an axe in 1892.