The Guilty Feminist: Live
“I am a feminist but….”
The opening line at the opening night of The Guilty Feminist show, and one that led to a relatable story that had the audience in stitches from the start.
Deborah Frances-White, the force and face behind The Guilty Feminist podcast, is now somewhat of a household name.
She launched The Guilty Feminist podcast in 2016 and since then, it has had an astonishing 95 million downloads.
And then, thankfully, Deborah decided to take her show on the road. The UK tour kicked off in Brighton last week and will finish in London later this year.
As for many of the audience, this was my first event of any scale since pre-pandemic, and I was excited. The Brighton Dome was filled with feminists of all sexes, friends of and perhaps some curious folks, and plus ones too.
It was a long time coming, after two years of lockdown and restrictions emotions were felt in the spacious bar area, as people started to arrive for the event. The bar was filled to the seams, oozing with excitement, joy and laughter…and reunions. The scene was set well.
Deborah arrived on stage, to a loud cheering roar from the audience. Dressed in an opulent dress and a dramatic cape. “I am a feminist but….”, she opened with a story about how she got lost in Brighton earlier that day, looking for directions to the venue and had to ask passers by.
She was then joined on stage by special guests, who appeared one by one, and introduced themselves with the same opening line.
The evening was a mix of stand-up and discussion, with special guests including actor Jessica Hynes (Spaced, W1A, Shaun of the Dead, Paddington 2); an up and coming stand-up comedian from South London Sikisa, as well as a music performance from the very talented and mesmerising Grace Petrie.
Brighton local Zoe Lyons brought the house down with her quick and witty tales including brutally frank anecdotes on everything from her hair loss to an insight into why menopausal women prefer cold water swimming and can be found on Brighton’s beach any day of the year.
Deborah took a shining to an audience member Chris, who perhaps a little foolishly sat in the front row with his wife. Deborah and Chris ‘bonded’ over their similar pasts involving a certain religion and he didn’t escape Deborah’s attention for the rest of the evening. She even instructed Chris to come up with something he learned about feminism after the intermission, his ‘homework’ which didn’t quite get an A+.
The evening continued with a roundtable discussion with author and journalist Laurie Penny about her new book “Sexual Revolution: Modern Fascism and the Feminist Fightback”, which was ushered to a premature end as the show was running out of time.
The night ended with a performance Jess Robinson, who paid an emotional tribute to her late grandmother Rosi, who put 70 children on a train and rescued them from a Nazi camp and who herself was a holocaust survivor.
The Guilty Feminist was a memorable night out, fun, educational and emotional which not only had me in stitches, but gave me a lot of food for thought. With a stellar cast, it is a show not to be missed.
- For more information and booking visit https://guiltyfeminist.com/2022-live-uk-tour/
