Same Penis Forever | Rebel Lyons
Cute Valentine’s Date Night idea: head out to Backbone Youth Arts to watch a young woman in a wedding dress tear apart the institution of marriage through song, dance, and stage combat. It seemed quite fitting to have the opening night of Same Penis Forever on the most capitalist, romantic, bullshit holiday of the year.
Having married and divorced at the age of 24, Rebel Lyons draws upon her own experience to paint a full picture of the discomfort of butting up against a life that has been laid out for you. What a power move. Same Penis Forever was raw, wild, and unapologetic, with a heavy dose of elevator music. The show had a great mix of silly moments with genuine moments. There were chaotic sequences of mental breakdowns, arguments between a couple both played by Rebel (in a brilliant half-man and half-woman costume) and a game of ‘who’s the biggest slut’. Rebel encouraged audience participation throughout with games, prizes, singalongs, and a dance-along where she taught us moves like the ‘wave goodbye to freedom’.
The show was brimming with wacky characters including a depressed mother-in-law, a posh, diamond-snorting embodiment of Wallace Bishop and Rebel’s own domestic American television sweetheart, Carolyn Flange. These clown-like, over-the-top characters were fun, unpredictable, and grotesque. I would love to see them taken further into the absurd.
A one-woman show is an ambitious undertaking. You are the writer, director, and all the actors on the stage. You have the challenge of holding the attention of the audience for the entire hour. I felt that Rebel entered the challenge well. She took the stage with energy, sass, and hilarious irreverence – nothing was too taboo. Rebel brought phenomenal commitment and vulnerability, stripping down to the nude at a moment’s notice and at one point, to the audience’s surprise, cutting off a chunk of her own hair.
Her personality shone through and she held us with her charm when things went wrong. There were a few too many transition moments where the audience were left waiting and scenes that I felt could have been tighter. The pacing was slow at times. Having greater control over the timing across the whole show would encourage us to engage with the emotional journey.
I enjoyed the direct address at the start of the show and the check-ins throughout. They felt honest, vulnerable and were organically funny. The moments that were most interesting to me were the anecdotes from Rebel’s own life. A good portion of the writing spoke of marriage in the general sense, and, as a young woman myself, I have heard these expectations a million times over. The personal twists were refreshing, such as when our protagonist was ‘sitting in a bathroom high on cocaine’ reflecting on where her ring used to be. I think that developing the specificity of her character and the other characters would elevate this show.
During intermission, the show incited conversations around marriage, dating and love. I found myself learning from a friend about how watching her parents’ successful marriage gave her a standard to aspire to and I reflected on how my experience was different, coming from divorced parents. I overheard other patrons discussing tinder, commitment and the meaning of marriage in the face of the increasing secularisation of the west. Rebel’s vision for the audience was to take something away from this experience, declaring ‘it will be worth it if you learn from my mistakes’. I am inspired by her mission to liberate women from the oppressive tools of the patriarchy and I’m sure she will rock Adelaide Fringe.
