Review: I’m Sexy And I Know It by Anna Friend at Alma Tavern Theatre

A love letter to Gen X Women who have have been through it

Anna Friend is sexy and she knows it. She has the confidence and air of the mid forties woman who is tired of everyone else’s nonsense and embraces the metamorphisis into the next stage of her life.

On the Alma Tavern stage, Anna doesn’t just embrace it. She struts across it, she dances, before kicking off the killer heels in readiness to bring us into her life.

There was a nod to the perimenopause for needing an on stage fan in the summer heat as well as comment about brain fog that can come with mid-life changes for women. This made the space seem safe and accepting from the off.

I’m Sexy And I Know It, is a fun and quirky show, documenting a journey all too familiar to middle-age women. It is a love letter to Gen X and Xennials about sex, relationships, first loves, first kisses and a whole lot of hot mess that comes along the way.

The hard trodden path of lust, love and sex comes through Anna’s own life stories. She’s a skilled storyteller whose remarkable honesty makes us root for her. Her experiences mirror ours – perhaps with the exception of flinging a poo out of a bathroom window. She takes us from prepubescent teen right through to the dynamics of her relationships today.

Her stories though entertaining are also astute observations on how movies, media and culture have shaped and in some cases, controlled women’s lives over the last 40 years.

The set is dressed with nostalgia inducing props setting historical context. The Lightsaber for He-Man’s ‘sword’. The hat of the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man. References to sexual elements of Ghostbusters. The inequality between the artistic production on male blow-up dolls compared to its droopy female counterpart. It’s all intermingled with Anna’s journey.

From puberty, periods, an early encounter with porn, teen diaries, messy snogs and power dressing suits of Thatcher with a splash of Kylie perm, we actually find that 80’s and 90’s children were forced into being sexual beings far too early. Before you could say Bacardi Breezer and lads mags.

It was a time when growing up meant being bombarded with conflicting messages in much the same way as a Boris Johnson public broadcast to the nation. Be thin, but not too thin. Be sexy but not slutty. Be demure but not frigid. Be neighbours Kylie. Be Sexy Love Kylie.

It was a time when porn was simpler and existed on video. A range of men working for utilities or repair services happening on a young woman. And before you can say Bob’s your uncle, it was all going on over the photocopier.

Intermingled with the rise of the supermodel was Page 3 in national tabloid papers. Girls barely aged 16 years of age modelling topless for the male gaze.

As Anna’s journey progresses, our own memories of the same times are unlocked as part of a shared history.

We are reminded that it was also a time when being LGBT+ was more complicated. Section 28 was in force. Absolutely nobody at school would admit to being gay. To admit to being gay would have made a person a victim of bullying.

How many middle-aged people – like Anna – then have the sudden realisation that actually, they are not hetrosexual at all. With support and self-discovery, they find they identify with one of the many communities making up the LGBT+ rainbow.

Anna’s stories range through a spectrum of emotions and dynamics – thought-provoking, hilarious, fascinating and raw. An encounter involving a toilet that goes hideously wrong leaves us on the edge of our seats. And there are raw moments, such as how the never-ending pressure of how to be a woman can impact on people’s mental health.

There’s a lot to take away from the show about what it meant to be sexy back then and what it means to be sexy now.

Peppered throughout is a touch of cabaret. We get an audience participation My Heart Will Go On. And, a big finish with Don’t Rain On My Parade.

I’m Sexy And I Know It, is an often hilarious, definitely funny, sometimes poignant but ultimately joyful journey that forty something women will relate to.

With its entertainment value and cultural and historic insight into the ‘norms’ of the day, it makes for an enjoyable and fascinating piece of theatre.

For what’s coming up at the Alma Tavern Theatre next, visit: https://www.almatavernandtheatre.co.uk/

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