‘Kathak is fundamentally a storytelling form’ (programme notes for Slut).
‘Sexual abuse is happening in every community…by its nature it is hidden’
Jon Brown, NSPCC
This compelling production draws on kathak and physical theatre to tell a story that is far from familiar kathak repertoire. There has been much coverage in the media of abuse of vulnerable children in institutions and by groups of perpetrators; not so much attention has been given to abuse within families, although this, or a trusted circle, is where the vast majority of abuse takes place. The context for Slut is a South Asian one, where silence about such issues is the norm, misogyny remains a powerful agent and where patriarchal attitudes mean that expressions of female sexuality are troubling and troublesome.
Slut takes the audience from birth to death, with the all-female cast of four adopting different roles as the story proceeds. It is by turns playful, serious and – appropriately – vulgar. Jane Chan’s portrayal of a child is engaging and convincing and we are drawn into her world; however, the future waits on either side of her on the stage, in the form of two pairs of high heels; both an anticipation of the fun the girls will have in trying out short skirts, heels and make-up and the reproof they will experience for doing so; yet the child suffers abuse, with the perpetrator unrebuked.
There are visually potent elements: the smaller cast members don hoodies to become the swaggering men who hold sway over the taller women – it is simply their gender that gives them power; and when death enters the story, the actors are clothed in white (associated with purity or death), one falls at a time, two others catch her (she is not unsupported). She is lovingly washed. There is also an urn – so all religions seem to be encompassed.
The impact of the closing rendition of Hey Joe is, somewhat surprisingly, quite up-beat. As with Parbati Chaudhury’s taking up a piece of chalk to produce a drawing of a penis on a blackboard (the kind of graffito usually found in boys’ toilets), the story told here is also one that the women and girls can – and must – tell. The term ‘consciousness-raising’ may seem rather old-fashioned, but it still has to be the starting-point and this kathak and theatre piece is an effective contribution to the issue.