Ejaculation – Discussions about Female Sexuality @ Summerhall
An insightful, sensitive documentary performance about female ejaculation personally and universally
Essi Rossi starts her piece by asking the audience a series of questions as she looks around at us all with wide eyes, moving between audience members, against a bright white backdrop of a line drawing of a woman’s naked torso. The questions she proposes are both personal and yet they are universally felt: Where do you find pleasure? Have you ever ejaculated? The space Rossi creates is both innately female and sexual – a safe space, so to speak – that the audience immediately feels comfortable in. They are talkative, rather than shy, and they match the seriousness of her tone.
The show consists of a variation of mediums – from voice notes of her interviews concerning sex and sexuality with a series of women across the globe played over her sitting or, at times, moving as if to a rhythm – to Rossi discussing her own experience of trying to ejaculate and thoroughly researching ejaculation both scientifically and physically. Rossi both asks and answers questions in a way that is refreshing – the documentary style adds a significance that the topic deserves after being ignored in both science and culture for so long. Rossi is accompanied by her musical counterpart Sarah Kevi, who plays affecting and powerful notes – however, although Rossi mentions their partnership in the process, the partly autobiographical nature of the piece leaves the extent of Kevi’s role unexplained.
Although they are both notably consumed in their art, the show itself can seem a little without form at times, affecting the content. And although the script is contextualised, Rossi’s movements aren’t always so. Yet the show as a whole is one that aims to educate rather than necessarily entertain, and it does so confidently and successfully, with time at the end in which Rossi and Kevi open the floor up for an insightful and well-realised discussion, leaving us all with stimulating food for thought.
Ejaculation – Discussions about Female Sexuality, Summerhall (Red Lecture Theatre), run ended