Melbourne International Comedy Festival: She Wolf

Gillian English lifts the roof at this year’s Melbourne International Comedy Festival with her hilarious new show, She Wolf. Performing in front of a packed (socially-distanced) audience at Storyville, the Tasmanian-based Canadian comedian embodies Queen Margaret of Anjou, infamously dubbed the ‘She-Wolf of France’ by Shakespeare and the history books. After enduring 500 years of literal hell, Queen Margie returns to the land of the living with one intention: to bring down the patriarchy and tell her story.

If you haven’t read the Wikipedia article, you may be asking who was Queen Margaret of Anjou? For the history buffs out there, she was the wife of the feeble-minded King Henry VI of England; she was a princess in her own right; and she was a mother, a warmonger, a widow – and an alleged murderer. To put it in context, she was history’s equivalent of Game of Throne’s Cersei Lannister.

Donning a tunic on stage, English is a star as she recounts the Queen’s life story while drawing parallels to the present day. She bemoans her woes: her lack of agency in choosing a husband, having been given a lowly cucumber instead; being overlooked for a “promotion” due to her gender because in 1400s England, only a man had the right to rule; and finally, her quest to protect her son against the same men who wish them dead.

Through re-enacting pivotal scenes in Shakespeare’s Henry VI and Richard III, English intelligently and comically reveals that the way we view women in positions of power hasn’t changed all too much. Given the revelations spilling out of Canberra, English’s performance is timely. She weaponises her talents and calls out the blatant misogyny, the dick-measuring contests and the aggression that alarmingly still take place.

An amusing and jocular piece of comedy theatre from start to finish, English unpacks Shakespeare’s portrayal of a queen turned monster.

She Wolf
Storyville, 185 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne, 3000
Till Sunday 4 April 2021
comedyfestival.com.au/2021/shows/she-wolf