Madeleine Martin
Sophie Power returns to Adelaide Fringe with her award-winning show CVNT. Led by an unhinged giant vulva, the show asks why we are so afraid of feminine pleasure – and what it might mean to embody that pleasure fully, without shame. We caught up with Sophie over a digital pint to talk about Bouffon, empowerment, and how comedy can create a space where people feel emboldened rather than exposed.
Catch CVNT at Fringeworld Perth at The Hat Trick at The Pleasure Garden, January 21-25 at 7:50pm (60 minutes), and at Adelaide Fringe at The Gallery at The Courtyard of Curiosities at the Migration Museum, February 19-March 1 at 9:10pm (60 minutes). Tickets for each of these runs are available through Fringeworld Perth Online Box Office and Adelaide Fringe Online Box Office.
Madeleine: Hi Sophie! CVNT returns to Adelaide following sell-out seasons at other major festivals, and seems to have already developed something of a cult following. Why do you think audiences are responding so fiercely to it?
Sophie: I’m glad you think that it’s got a cult following! I think it’s because – well firstly, that people think it’s funny, which you’d hope being in comedy! – but it’s also because it makes people feel good, I think. And it’s very wild and dangerous, it’s not like your average comedy show, it’s very interactive, and it’s like a full experience, which is something that I definitely wanted to create with this. Not just a show like, ‘let’s see Sophie Power put on a show’, it was very much always about what I wanted the audience to feel and go through and experience.
Madeleine: Let’s talk about the giant Vulva – where did this idea begin, and what power does embodying this figure give you as a performer?
Sophie: Well, actually, it came from the word “can’t”. I had been thinking about almost like a Garry Starr-style of show, using all the idioms including the word “can’t” – can’t touch this, can’t get enough, whatever – and just doing little clown skits with the audience. And then I was like, ‘oh well I guess I’ll have to dress as a giant c*nt’. And it wasn’t going to be anything feminist or anything, I was just going to be a c*nt. And then it morphed, and changed into what it is now!
I think as a performer, the great thing about Bouffon is that it puts a different focus in the eyes. It’s all about really boring into the audience, and making people feel uncomfortable. There’s so much power in that, in looking at people and going ‘I know you’re feeling uncomfortable, and I know you’re squirming, but I feel great’. And especially talking about feminine sexuality, or anything about body parts, it’s such a great way to be completely unapologetic, by using that mask.
Empowering the c*nt has also bled into my own life, making me feel more confident and able to do whatever. Like, jumping up on stage and orgasming in front of the entire audience really just made me like, ‘well I don’t care, whatever!’ about everything, so that’s been really cool.
Madeleine: Bouffon has historically been about outsiders mocking power, exposing social norms and pushing audiences into discomfort and joy. How do you see CVNT speaking within or against that lineage?
Sophie: Bouffon, I think is a tricky one, because there are some parts of bouffon that I think are a little outdated. It can make me quite uncomfortable, because it can be ableist – you know, people binding their limbs or blackening out their teeth or wearing lumps around their body – and playing into certain stereotypes. So Bouffon can be very difficult to do well and sensitively, and the tightrope is very tricky. As a performer, what I think I want people to feel, is to be on the edge of their seat, yes, but I want them to feel safe and supported that whenever they feel like sharing – there are some confessional things in the show – that they feel like they want to share, not that they’re forced into it because they’re scared. They might feel a little thrill, but they’re not going to do something, hopefully, that they don’t feel empowered to do. I don’t want to shame the audience, I want to use the knowledge that people do feel shame, but use that to empower people.
Madeleine: Totally. My experience with studying Bouffon was very much what you’ve described, I did feel uncomfortable a lot of the time for these reasons. But I feel like the way that a lot of people are teaching Bouffon at the moment is amazing, and that there are lots of shows that come from the tradition of Bouffon and that get to its essence, but without those problematic themes.
Sophie: Yes! I did Elf Lyons’ workshop when she came to Australia, it was great. She said exactly the same thing, that you can use the eyes and the focus of the Bouffon to really pull on different things in order to ‘punch up’, but you don’t have to do all of that horrible, usually ableist, potentially racist stuff. Leave all of that! But you can use the mask as a way to skewer people in power. So I think that’s great.
Madeleine: CVNT pushes audiences to think about pleasure, shame, and the feminine body. What conversations did you want to crack open?
Sophie: Just how awesome c*nts are! And just how horrifically low public knowledge is on basic anatomy of vulvas, as well. People who have vulvas, and people who love vulvas, it’s just quite wild how little people know about them and how scared people are. Obviously, and this is something I’ve tried to be really conscious of, is what the show could mean in terms of the experience of gender dysphoria, which is a unique experience. And so something I’ve thought about and tried to be aware of is the way in which there could be a conflicting relationship with the vulva, for trans male people.
In the show I use the language, ‘everyone has a c*nt’. Because it’s kind of about everyone embracing femininity and whatever that means to you, to everyone in the audience, and not being afraid of it. It’s about embracing and loving pleasure, and coming out of the show completely empowered and without any shame.
Madeleine: Why this show, at this time? What cultural, political, or personal moment sparked its creation?
Sophie: It’s interesting, because originally when the show was about “can’t”, one night I had this moment where I just went, ‘oh, this is about not being a good girl’. And I looked up ‘good girl syndrome’, and it’s about perfectionism, putting other people first and to your own detriment, people pleasing, sexual shame, all of those kinds of things. And so the show became about that. So for me, it became all about getting rid of the good girl.
Since starting the show, I see it all the time! People second-guessing themselves – really powerful, intelligent people going ‘oh no, I shouldn’t do this because, blah, blah’, and I’m like ‘no!’ You’ve gotta be your full self, whatever that means. And of course, that includes setting boundaries.
Madeleine: What, if anything, are you hoping the audience might take away from the experience of CVNT?
Sophie: That they leave feeling completely empowered to go and do all of the things that they’ve always wanted to do. Embracing the power of femininity, like we talked about, regardless of their gender and gender identity. Respecting and seeing femininity as a powerful force – it can be seen as very quiet, but really, femininity has a really full-on power. And people just feeling like their most badass, c*nty selves! Going out to do whatever they want, and setting boundaries. Speaking up to people in their lives – or on behalf of other people – not letting people get away with doing bad things just because you’re afraid to speak up, essentially. Just a few things!
Madeleine: Given the themes of Binge Fringe, if your show was a beverage of any kind – alcoholic, non-alcoholic, be as creative as you like! – what would it be and why?
Sophie: It obviously has to be a fresh wet pussy shot! But then it would go into a bloody Mary. Have a few fresh wet pussies [vodka, peach schnapps, cranberry juice, lime], but then go into the bloody Maries when you’ve had too many shots.
Madeleine: I love that. Salty, umami…
Sophie: Exactly. Just for a full meal, y’know.
Once again: catch CVNT at Fringe World Perth at The Hat Trick at The Pleasure Garden, January 21-25 at 7:50pm (60 minutes), and at Adelaide Fringe at The Gallery at The Courtyard of Curiosities at the Migration Museum, February 19-March 1 at 9:10pm (60 minutes). Tickets for each of these runs are available through Fringeworld Perth Online Box Office and Adelaide Fringe Online Box Office.
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