Whore’s Eye View
Written and Performed by Kaytlin Bailey
Laurie Beechman Theatre, 407 W 42nd St., NYC
April 25 - May 9
Last night, I left the theater wondering what I had just seen. I had so many thoughts and questions running through my head. There had been a Q&A at the end of the performance, but these weren't questions for the artist, Kaytlin Bailey. They were questions for the world. They were questions for various generations of women – women who remember life before they could own a credit card, never mind the on-going attacks on our reproductive rights that we face today. Why does the world feel so threatened by women with bodily autonomy?
Was this show “infotaiment”? Infotaiment seems to be the catchall for anything from The Oprah Winfrey Show to Rachel Maddow Show to Alex Jones’ InfoWars, but TED Talks for some reason seems to be insulted by the connotation. Or perhaps the show was more reminiscent of the later satirical monologues of the late, great George Carlin. But this wasn’t satire.
This was a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down.
Among her talents, Kaytlin Bailey is a fine comedian. She has structured this piece to start with recorded time – or perhaps slightly before, and weaves its way through her own experiences. The audience could have relaxed a bit. If people didn’t laugh, it wasn’t because a joke wasn’t funny. It was because they were still trying to figure out if it was okay to laugh at the trials women have faced because no one ever bothered to study our anatomy or because 591 years after the birth of Christ a pope confused two women with the same name. And by trials, take three hundred years of witch trials for example.
Could this show be a TED Talk? Yes, 100%
Could this show be slotted into Netflix Stand-up Line-up? Sure. (If the audience chills out a bit - were we all raised by Puritans?)
Has there been anything like it? John Leguizamo’s Broadway hit Latin History for Morons is as close as I can get.
Personally, I don’t think Infotaiment should be relegated to “soft journalism”. I can honestly not think of anything else as informative or entertaining as Whore’s Eye View, so why should it be barred from the category? Enjoy dinner from the West Bank Cafe, enjoy the show, take notes if you must – perhaps we should – but above all else allow yourself to laugh.
Click below for ticket information for upcoming dates.
Orlando | May 17 – 26 @ Renaissance Theatre
Harrisburg, PA | July 18 – 21
Oxford, UK | July 26 @ Oxford Comedy Festival
Reviewed by Nicole Jesson.
Published by Theatre Beyond Broadway on April 26th, 2024. All rights reserved.