A Body at Work

A Body at Work
Written & performed by Frankie van Kan. Direction & dramaturgy Maude Davey. Midsumma Festival. La Mama HQ, Faraday Street, Carlton. 27 January – 4 February 2024

This body at work belongs to Frankie van Kan: among other things, a dancer (table, lap, pole), stripper, sex-worker, and masseuse.  All work that needs and uses her body.  To demystify that body, Frankie begins her show by stripping off a tracksuit, down to nothing but a bra and G-string.  Then, to get any prurience, titillation, ‘mystery’ and even eroticism out of the way, the G-string comes off too and Frankie openly displays her pudenda (‘labia’ as she puts it – or sometimes ‘puss’) in a variety of faux provocative poses for all to see.  So, we see.  There are oohs and ahs at this, but laughter too.  Why not?  Her labia aren’t funny; it’s the blatant display.

Her non-speaking stooge (heavily bearded Daniel Newell), who plays the recurring representative of mostly inadequate, sad or twisted blokes, takes a Polaroid close-up of those labia – wow! – and is just thrilled at what he thinks is some kind of naughty achievement.  For Frankie, it’s all in a day’s work and no big deal.  It’s just her body – at work. 

Is this shocking?  Well, it is not quite what we expect to see on a theatre stage in the first few minutes of a show, but we are more surprised than shocked.  And after about two minutes, the spectacle of a strong-bodied, naked woman is, well, quite normal (but still beautiful) and we attend to her very matter of fact telling of her life.  That telling is witty, ironic, racy, edgy, sarcastic and always down to earth. 

Essentially, A Body at Work is an illustrated memoir, enlivened by Frankie’s sardonic telling, her dance moves and her body – always at work.  Memoirs, however, are notoriously difficult to shape into dramatic form and, at the end of the show, Frankie acknowledges her collaboration with her director, multi-talented Maude Davey who helped her ‘shape the material’. That material is, of course, most congenial for Davey who in her own shows has raised such themes as the liberation of the female body and female sexuality.

And the material is well-shaped.  Once the startling intro is out of the way, the ‘material’ plays in more or less chronological order from teen years onward as Frankie matures and develops as a woman.  But in the telling, Frankie contradicts – or perhaps just counters – a whole lot of givens and ‘correct’ assumptions.  First, she asserts that has always enjoyed her work and the sexuality of it.  Second, that she never felt exploited – even when she was being exploited - or mauled, or demeaned by misogynist or just scared blokes.  Third, that the first time she had sex for money, it felt ‘clean’ because it was clear-cut – pleasure for cash without the hang-ups.  As she tells it, she’s in charge, never the victim.  (That is, as we know, only half the sex worker story – but this is Frankie’s story.)

Her life’s been made up of her choices - as is conceiving and performing this show.  She revels in her memories of her lesbian lovers with a lush sensuality – and humour.  We watch her take a bath.  She diverts into the Mother versus Whore bind, and – with the help of the bloke - sends it up hilariously with a serious of unmistakable religious art tableaus – Frankie as the Virgin Mary, the bloke as an angel or Joseph, or a Wise Man.  We watch Frankie massage the generic bloke with an objective running commentary on the male orgasm – again demystifying her ‘work’ – and getting more laughs.

There is indeed much laughter across the seventy or so minutes of the show – perhaps more from the women in the audience than the men; there are hoots of recognition or sighs of ‘Ain’t that the truth…’  The body holds no mystery for them – that’s for the cunt-struck men. 

But toward the end, Frankie’s tone becomes softer, more longing.  Sensuality dominates.  Frankie has a different task, different work for her body.  Work that only a female body can do.

As for onstage ‘nudity’ (nudity versus ‘naked’) I was reminded of Nell Dunn’s 1981 hit play Steaming in which the cast was totally naked most of the time.  As with A Body at Work, the novelty and the thrill wore off in minutes and we engaged with the characters.  Naked can be a metaphor too. 

A Body at Work is undoubtedly provocative and confrontational in a non-threatening way.  Frankie van Kan is a great storyteller and a powerful stage presence – and a powerful female.

Michael Brindley

Photographer: Darren Gill.

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