Georgina Collins brings her debut Fringe play, exploring the mix of shame and desire that one 25-year-old feels, with a demonic twinkle in her eye. Also a burlesque artist going by the name Strawberry Duvall, writer/ actor Collins begins her subtly twisted horror show in specs and a prim cardigan. Before long the demure layers are peeled off, and she is navigating her own queer liberation, giving flashbacks of Janet Weiss’s sexual awakening in Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Inspiration came when Collins experienced extreme hormonal changes that were diagnosed eventually as premenstrual dysphoric disorder, and she decided to distil that painful, confusing experience into a lighthearted, yet dark piece of fantasy storytelling. She takes the myth of succubus, skewering it together with a man-eater metaphor, and writes a character so overpowered by lust and hungry for human flesh, she begins lying to her butcher about the ravenous huskies she’s feeding at home.
SUCCUBUS follows in the footsteps of classic werewolf and vampire plots where puberty and physical changes bring uncontrollable urges and dangerous consequences. Collins is a confident and magnetic performer, devouring meat and dripping in fake blood as her play touches on the more serious issues of medical gaslighting and misogyny.
SUCCUBUS, Underbelly Bristo Square, run ended