An alleged feminist with a sexual charge

This isn't about monkeys. Or maybe it is, because we men are a bit monkey-like (I like cacophony). In any case, according to the French novelist Virginie Gastos, the great Hollywood ape "is beyond man and beyond woman." The ape, he says King Kong Theory, "is hooked on the bond between man and beast, adult and child, good and evil, primitive and civilized, black and white. It is a hybrid, before the imposition of the binary."

The book, published in 2008 in France and 2018 in Spain, is a mix of the author's dramatic biographical references and critical reflections on sex, on the patriarchal society in which we live, and on the demand for women's liberation. "Feminism is a revolution," the author exclaims. Finally, a liberation that she experienced from adolescence with joys and dramas, and of which M. Àngels Cabré has made an effective dramaturgy/compendium following the seven parts of the book. I would say that she has done so by prioritizing the biographical sections: her two-year journey through prostitution and the gang rape she suffered at age 17, while hitchhiking. The most intimate and interesting reflections arise from this proposal that strikes at what has already been spoken and discussed in recent years.

The direct, light and colloquial word of the author (translated by Marina Espasa) flows well in the velvety voice of Mari Pau Pigem, confronted by some limiting directorial decisions. I'm referring, above all, to the uncomfortable prominence of a soundscape or score that freely runs through almost the entire performance and forces the actress to use a wireless microphone. A blessing in disguise for her magnificent expressiveness. We don't quite understand the reason for some of the actions that director Isis Martín has imagined to visually fill a story devoid of action. Pure artifice. On the other hand, one of them is frankly interesting, even overwhelming: Pigem, handheld camera in a long close-up that she magnificently holds, followed by a stroll through the mesh of spikes that cover her body.