Trilogy

Meant to be a three-part celebration of femininity, it instead comes across as an over-long and slightly self-indulgent production that has little to do with equality and more with creating multiple excuses for women to appear nude onstage.

Part three is the most successful section, a look at the "Her-story" campaign and some brutal truths of how women are treated in the present, all underpinned by the song Jerusalem.

No matter what one thinks of this production, the skill and charm of creator Nic Green and her company cannot be denied. Everything is brilliantly rehearsed and executed, from complicated dance routines to choral line recitals.

Large chunks of the production are segments that require the company to speak to, and sometimes with, the audience. These almost always come across as warm, kind and intelligent.

But at nearly three hours in length, I have to question the point of it all. Though everything is slickly produced, there isn’t one truly original idea. In fact, it feels as if this is a production that is simply preaching to the converted.

It isn’t going to change anyone’s opinions or ideas, and it never manages to challenge any long-held notions of inequality. It certainly doesn’t further the cause of feminism, although it feels like it exists solely because of the hard work of past feminists.

The nakedness is also so constant that it feels more like a gimmick than a necessary production element. True, many women from the audience have come onstage naked, and if only one woman has slightly benefitted from such an action, then this is to be commended and celebrated. But this act is a personal triumph and frankly has little effect on the audience, thus making it more self-indulgent than an artistic necessity. And such action is never juxtaposed to modern beliefs of so-called appropriate female body images, thus such choices have little artistic merit and relevance .

In the end, Trilogy feels like a complete waste. A waste of great talent. A waste of great ideas. A waste of the potential to look at the way women are treated in society now and actively question: have we come any further? There is no answer supplied; there are only scores of women who stand onstage naked. I applaud any action that shatters any stigma one might feel towards the female body. But while this might benefit those that participate, it leaves the rest in the audience a bit cold.