A Bic For Her
A Bic For Her ★★★★
Written by Ben Williams in Time Out on August 7th, 2013
If you’ve been to any of Bridget Christie’s previous shows, you might’ve seen her dressed up as a donkey, in character as King Charles II or perhaps performing stand-up from the perspective of an ant.
It’s certainly a long way from Christie’s latest offering – a passionate, more traditional stand-up show which attacks sexism without a strange costume or papier-mâché prop in sight. And it’s her best show yet.
The title, ‘A Bic for Her’, comes from a real product released by the ballpoint pen manufacturers aimed at the female market – because, as we all know, women have long struggled with the masculinity of standard biros, right? Cue an impish, playful mime from Christie and some smart lines about the Brontë sisters’ inability to pen great fiction due to their genderless writing implements.
Christie keeps on point (no pun intended) throughout. She smartly touches on more serious forms of misogyny across the globe without ever losing the light, silly tone of the show, and there are plenty of intelligent, sarcastic jabs at supposed feminist icons and arrogant chauvinists. A story about the karma of what happened to Sir Stirling Moss after he stated that women don’t have ‘the mental aptitude’ to race in Formula 1 is a particular highlight.
Feminists, as human rights activists, shouldn’t have to be funny, she quite rightly points out. A comedy show, though, probably should be, and Christie has come up with an hour that is not only full of elegant, surreal and self-aware jokes, it has heart and integrity to boot. And by signing off with the words of Malala Yousafzai – the 16-year-old equal rights activist who was shot by the Taliban – Christie makes it clear she knows that joking about sexism alone isn’t going to solve the problem.
Written by Ben Williams in Time Out on 7th August 2013.
Filed Under: An Ungrateful Woman, Review