What in the world are we going to do about the manosphere?? This is the question the British media is asking. Adolescence stabbed into it; James Bloodworth’s
The Lost Boys he swallowed it; Louis Theroux Inside the Manosphere raised an eyebrow at him. now Among other thingsSuzie Miller’s latest drama, takes it by the foot and turns it on its head.
Miller tells the story of Jessica Parke (Rosamund Pike), a “feminist” judge determined to revolutionize the legal system’s approach to rape cases. But her conviction begins to unravel when her 18-year-old son Harry (Cormac McAlinden) is accused of rape and revealed as the archetypal misogynist of the manosphere: watching hard porn and ranking women in group chats. Her lawyer husband, Michael (Jamie Glover), fumbles unhelpfully around Miriam Buether’s gorgeous band, growing more insecure and unstable as the play unfolds.
Pike gives a delightful, lively performance, embodying several characters – and versions of Jessica – as she evolves from anxious mother to confident judge. It’s a stunning twist over the course of the show’s 100 minutes. Where Pike occasionally falters with accents, she makes up for it with sharp comedic timing and a vivid portrayal of the painful, conflicted emotions of a feminist lawyer who finds herself challenging another woman’s account of sexual assault to save her son. She and McAlinden turn each other on; their final scene together is a culmination of their strained relationship.
But what will the audience think as they leave the theater? The show is a somewhat muddled intervention in the manosphere debate. If mothers are led to believe that, despite their best efforts, the manosphere will swallow their sons and return them as rapists, the result is a bleak, fatalistic vision. By pouring so much energy and specificity into Jessica, Miller reduces Michael and Harry to crude sketches of masculinity. The unanswered question Among other things it is like this: does it illuminate the manosphere, or does it give it too much power?
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Among other things
Wyndham’s Theatre, London, WC2H
Until June 20
(Further reading: Les Liaisons Dangereuses brilliantly displays the power of emotion)
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