Tuesday, February 27, 2018

Review: Alternative Tentacles Slowly Emerge From The Underground

By Ed Malin

Tentacles by Tessa Flannery is being presented as part of the 12th annual Frigid Festival. Rebecca Cunningham directs this effort, the third collaboration between Flannery and Cunningham, brought to you by Voyage Theater Company.  Perhaps you may have heard of, and regularly enjoy, erotica that could be classified as "hentai" (Japanese for "perverse") or have that supposedly rare or shameful attraction to "tentacle porn"? Perhaps you are a feminist and have no idea how these things could be relevant to your life? Come on, jump into the debate.  This may be the only show you see this season where one talented individual—Claire Warden—is credited as both Fight and Intimacy Director.
Tessa frames the show as her contribution to a conference on feminist ravishment fantasies.  She has interviewed several women and presents her findings on what may be atypical (or not normally discussed) female sexual fantasies. Why might young women consume erotica focused on gay men? Do gay male sexual encounters imply equality between the participants such as heterosexual porn for men will never know?  What about animation in which a woman is abducted by and pleasured by enormous tentacles?  Is this "guilt-free" insofar as it does not depict violation of live women?
photo by Ryan Smith
What is pro-sex feminism?  (Raise your hand if you know.)  Up to this point, Tessa is firmly in control of her presentation, except for some moments where the lighting shifts and we see her enter into unique fantasies resembling those from her research.  However, one loud patriarchal voice interrupts Tessa.  This voice belongs to Chris (Chris Fayne), a Japanese-American adult film actor who just knows he can contradict everything Tessa wants to say.
So what if an educated woman scripts a porno to illustrate her own rape fantasy? Even if the porno is  created consensually, does it send the wrong message to its audience of male consumers?  Why does Tessa hesitate to kick Chris off of her conference stage?  We learn that Tessa and Chris knew each other in college (indeed, we see a flashback to them performing in a slattern-shaming scene from Shakespeare’s “Pericles, Prince of Tyre”) and that Tessa once worked as a phone sex operator. Clearly, any sex work that Chris does is something he can brag about, but Tessa’s sexual experiences and fantasies might make it hard for the academic establishment to take her seriously. Have you read the 1970s classic "My Secret Garden"? Can you recognize Hokusai's tentacle porn woodblock prints? Why didn't the works of Picasso's Tentacle Period have a greater mainstream impact?  Can you relate to tentacles in the works of H.P. Lovecraft and the Evil Dead movies? What kind of porn do you like to watch?  This question is asked of the audience, who had some very interesting responses the night I saw the show.
Well, Chris is quite a piece of work. Your humble reviewer majored in Japanese literature and lived there a while, but can remember being left speechless by the animated tentacle penetrator in "Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Demon Womb", a film Chris recommends as an example of Japanese freedom to depict sex in art.  For all Chris’s talk, Tessa has the last word with her sincere declaration “It costs you nothing”.
Perhaps some day soon, tentacles will have nothing to do with the male gaze.  Perhaps every woman will speak for herself and be treated accordingly.  Right now, you should do yourself a favor and see this show, alone or with any number of acquaintances.  The conversations that will follow should be very liberating.  Hats off to Rebecca Cunningham for helping Tessa and Chris to walk the fine line between domination and vulnerability.