The Misandrist – Arcola Theatre, London

A new play at the Arcola Theatre, The Misandrist is an edgy tale of sexual discovery. Don’t bring your mum.

Warning: some content and links very NSFW.

The Misandrist

I was very curious about The Misandrist.  A two-hander, it is billed as “a penetrating new play”. With pegging, no less.  But how would this work in a theatrical setting?  And would I get away with writing a review without some of my genteel readers googling what exactly pegging is (link here for the curious, NSFW). Continue reading to find out the answers to these questions and more.

The Misandrist, by Lisa Carroll, is much more than these flippant thoughts would suggest.  It’s a story about Rachel (Elf Lyons) and Nick (Nicholas Armfield), who meet at an office Christmas party.  They start seeing each other: nothing serious, just sex.  But when you’re only connecting on one level you sometimes need to work harder to keep it interesting.  A journey which might, for instance, start with a simple digit, which leads to a sex toy, which leads to a sex toy with a person on the end of it.

But if it’s still all just about sex, is that enough? And if it’s not just about sex any more, what does that mean? The Misandrist follows the arc of Rachel and Nick’s relationship as they explore this question.  And several dildoes besides.

Sometimes, The Way To A Man’s Heart Isn’t Through His Stomach

What was really interesting for me in The Misandrist was its perspective on how sex can be, at one and the same time, intensely vulnerable but also a way to create a barrier to intimacy.  And how, if a couple’s perspectives aren’t aligned on this front, cracks will emerge.  Nick is willing to open up (emotionally, I mean).  Rachel, damaged by her relationships with her father and her ex, finds this harder.  For her, the act of pegging is both sexual gratification, control, and a way to keep Nick at arm’s length.

The play itself felt a little unbalanced in drawing this picture.  The first half was a little long for my tastes, and the pacing leading up to the interval didn’t quite work for me. I was also a little perturbed what I felt were some consent issues after Nick initially declines to expand his horizons, especially in such a sex-positive play.  The sex scenes themselves, on the other hand, were witty and well- staged.  A bit more on the staging and creative team follows below.

The shorter second half had good energy, including during a lengthy, righteously angry monologue by Rachael which, in the wrong hands may have crossed the line into preachy.  As it is, under the direction of Bethany Pitts, it got heartfelt applause from an audience suddenly cognizant of all the ways in which a patriarchal society can be a death of a thousand cuts (or just plain old death) for its female members. There’s also a lot of humour in the fourth wall breaks and good use of the device of doubling our two actors as minor characters.

Final Thoughts

For a play about pegging, The Misandrist makes for surprisingly comfortable viewing.  You might not want to take your mum to it, but you can safely go with friends.  First date?  Well now, maybe wait for the second…  As I mentioned above though, the sex scenes are witty rather than graphic.  Watch out for the various ways in which orgasms are signalled.

The performances of Elf Lyons as Rachel and Nicholas Armfield as Nick help The Misandrist to overcome some limitations in their character development.  Nick’s simultaneous exploration of his kinks while yearning for a plain old relationship is endearing, and the dissonance between his ‘nice guy’ persona and some of his actions and justifications sadly believable.  Rachel’s discomfort with emotional vulnerability, hidden under an increasingly fragile veneer of humour and a growing misandry (per the title), puts her on a different path.  Yet there are funny and tender moments between them which make this a believable relationship.  Lyons’s background in comedy shows through in the way she handles audience reactions, without being overpowering. That they don’t seem to exist much outside of their relationship with each other is the bigger challenge, especially within what is a reasonably long two-hander at over two hours.

But to come back to my earlier questions, the subject of pegging works rather well in a theatrical setting. It takes a good dose of humour, and some penetrating insights beyond the act of penetration itself. The Arcola, as I’ve mentioned before, is a slightly unusual theatre space: industrial and almost in the round. Designer Cara Evans has created a simple yet effective set (something they are particularly good at), with minimal props but a few flourishes where it matters. Lighting Designer Peter Small also does great work, underlining the emotional arc of the story. I wonder if there’s an Offie they could be nominated for: Most Creative On-Stage Orgasm, perhaps?

Salterton Arts Review: 3/5

The Misandrist on until 10 June 2023