Dr Carnesky's Incredible Bleeding Woman: Why one woman created a cabaret about menstruation

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When the painters are in, going out is often off the cards. But who says the fun has to stop, just because you're on the cranberry tea and hot water bottles?

Performance-maker Marisa Carnesky is putting the magic into menstruation for her show, Dr Carnesky's Incredible Bleeding Woman, which returns to Soho Theatre this week.

The Olivier Award-winning artist is known for staging a number of unforgettable performance projects, from a theatrical ghost train to an alternative stage school. For her current show, which is also on a national tour, Carnesky brings together her band of self-styled Menstronauts for an evening of live art and cabaret. Within their ranks are sword swallower Missa Blue, trans columnist Rhyannon Styles, hair hanger and former Alternative Miss World winner Fancy Chance, and two-year-old Sula Majorie Plewis Robin.

Exploring ancient herstories, body shame, fertility, miscarriage and trans identities, the show breaks the taboo around the time of the month to teach the audience how to bring menstrual rituals into their lives.

Keen to bring the party to your period? Here, Carnesky explains why she wants to show audiences a bloody good time.

What can audiences expect from a stage show about menstruation?

Well, the first exciting thing about menstruation is that through our show you discover that it is so much more than a hygiene issue. We look at the how the cycles of the body hold an ecological message for all of us, regardless of our biological sex. That menstruation as a metaphor for renewal is a powerful signifier of many life lessons, and that it has been a driving force in mythology and folk tales for centuries, all over the world. We also touch on the cultural shame loaded on young women, and address the taboo that leads to silencing of women around further reproductive and cyclical issues, from birth control, miscarriage, difficult birth, connection to our mothers and issues for transgender women and their experience of not having physical menstruation.

Why did you decide to make the show?

I have always loved writers like Angela Carter and decoding the hidden meanings of fairy tales and myths. I also loved horror films like Carrie as a child and am fascinated with the notion of witches and young women holding paranormal powers when menstruating. I wanted to make a contemporary feminist show inspired by these aesthetics but also to look at the new wave of women's activism around reproductive and menstrual rights, and work with a company of really diverse performers from all different aspects of women's experience.

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How do audiences respond?

It's literally quite magical. People are interested and amused by the tongue-in-cheek performance rituals, and we end up telling the audience real stories about our lives and the challenges we have faced - each of us with a different relationship to our bodies, menstruation, motherhood, miscarriage and gender identity. People laugh a lot at things they’ve never heard discussed on stage, and sometimes people are moved emotionally by stories that might touch on difficult personal experiences that are very taboo to talk about. So its a mix of crying and laughing, but we hope everyone comes out feeling refreshed and renewed!

Why do you think the taboo about menstruation persists?

Menstruation is a powerful experience for many, many people and it's strange how its still such a hush-hush topic. It has had different meanings in different cultures, but it holds a strong unifying point of connection for women as a shared experience, a thing your mother and grandmother talk to you about. It seems it was thought of as more sacred and symbolic in traditional human cultures, and in some ancient cultures had a higher cultural status that it does for us now. Perhaps in the west increased misogyny in the medieval era made it into something seen as dirty and the collective power of women as a a threat to patriarchal structures. So it seems culture and society has kept it carefully under wraps and kept it quiet.

Will you continue to explore issues around the female body in your work? What’s next?

My work always on some level connects to issues around the body. People keep asking if I’m going to make a menopause show next and I'm not sure if I will, and if I did what form it would take…. I like to find unexpected and under explored angles on things. In the past I created a real ghost ride about disappeared women between east and west and a show about illusions in warfare. So I am waiting for next big idea to strike. Having used a lot of theatrical blood for this one and it being rather sticky after every show I think I might avoid that next time!

What menstrual rituals can we bring to our everyday lives?

There are so many possibilities, and the show proposes to the audience how they might do this by showing and explaining what we have come up with and what rituals can be. After seeing the show many people have started their own journey to create menstrual rituals for themselves. This could be anything from as simple to lighting candles and reading a poem to mark the passing of the month to sharing stories with friends, planting something and making a special time for reflection once a month. We also have started a group called the Menstronauts and the idea is that we can create rituals collectively and also get together dressed in creative red outfits and go on things like women's marches.

Dr Carnesky's Incredible Bleeding Woman is at Soho Theatre from November 19-24; sohotheatre.com