Joan Hotchkis uses her own family history (complete with slides) to detail the casual racism and sexism of a society in which women were expected to be "a pretty white shell", wholly dependent on the menfolk. Her mother, she recounts, once spent 15 hours in the saddle when menstruating but said nothing because "I'd rather die than spoil father's day." The accounts of her own rape by a lover and her brain operation are powerful but insufficiently integrated. None the less, a finely controlled performance and an eye-opening show.
Written for The Independent.
Copyright © Ian Shuttleworth; all rights reserved.
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