On the Bodily Education of Young Girls – Fraught Outfit

Overview

NEON, the Melbourne Theatre Company’s Festival of Independent Theatre, is now in full swing. The first show, Menagerie, has just finished its run and next in line is Fraught Outfit’s On The Bodily Education of Young Girls.

Set in an isolated female-only boarding school, an environment both idyllic and sinister where the educational practices are unorthodox to say the least, and performed largely in silence, this promises to be an eerie theatrical experience. It’s based on a novella published in 1903 but don’t go expecting something twee. Author Frank Wedekind was a playwright who popped many a monocle from the eyes of his audiences with his frank depictions of sexuality and violence. It’s only fitting that his work is being staged 110 years on by an edgy Melbourne indie company.

Adena Jacobs of Fraught Outfit has shown her hand at dusting off old stories and giving them fresh life as controversial theatre with her takes on Ingmar Bergman’s Persona (2012) and Euripides’ Elektra (2010), so it will be intriguing what she does with Wedekind’s surreal tale of twisted schooling.  It’s sure to be a lesson in the avant-garde.