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Deeply moving reflections on female desire
Gina Moxley and Pan Pan The Patient Gloria
[Luca Truffarelli]
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The Patient Gloria
Theatre Royal
IN 1965 California, Gloria Szymanski goes through sessions with three psychotherapists. Organised and directed by the psychotherapist Dr Everett Shostrum, the sessions are filmed for the purpose of being shown to psychology students, but soon after they wound up on television and cinemas, betraying Gloria’s privacy.
Taking The Gloria Films as a starting point, The Patient Gloria mixes re-enactment, actual footage and the playwright’s own lived experience. The casual exploitation of Gloria’s private life is the starting point for a funny and poignant exploration of how men dominate, control and demean women’s experience of their own sexuality. It’s both laugh-out-loud funny, and deeply touching.
Gina Moxley plays the three psychologists who interview Gloria. They are smug and self-centred and take pleasure in shaming their patient. She comes in and out of character, switching in between physical comedy, sharp-witted commentary and deeply moving reflections on female desire.
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