Claire Dowie’s fast and funny story of her clash with the oppressive gender norms of society at times has the style and humour of stand-up comedy, even as it challenges the way society abuses women. It opens with the early lines of John Lennon’s 1971 recording of “Working Class Hero” reminding us that “As soon as you're born, they make you feel small.”
Claire arrives to a stage that is empty but for the vintage integrated school desk and chair. Wearing a school uniform of jacket, shirt, tie and skirt, she tells us this is her at age 14, moody and yearning with her friends to have something in their lives. They called themselves the “Fab 4” after the Beatles, with Clare wanting to be regarded as the John Lennon of the group.
The skirt was the biggest hassle. As a kid of seven or eight, she could be a tomboy, play football and other games, but with a skirt that wasn’t so easy with the lads trying “to see your knickers.” Later, when at dances, the girls were expected to prepare for display with make-up, a stylish hairdo and a dress. She felt stupid dressed like that, insisting she wasn’t a chick, a bird, or a doll and telling us, “I don’t want a boyfriend going round with a lot of make-up on his arm.”
The boyfriends she did have were a pain. Going to the cinema with one, she spent most of the film fending off his groping hands. Another lad, having a problem putting on a condom, called her stupid for not being on the pill. Even the one who claimed he believed in women’s equality added, “only after a working class revolution.”
Workplaces seemed to continue the rigid gender conformity with her still having to wear a skirt, “making me feel like I was a sexual diversion for the blokes”. Even the employment that didn't mind women wearing trousers had a boss who came behind her “squeezing my tits”.
Then came the hope of the Women’s Liberation Movement, which promised great things but delivered very dry, limited changes. Yes, she was “told there were plenty of jobs for women because you are cheaper.”
The witty, sharp and entertaining performance had the audience constantly laughing as it made its important points about the continuing suffocating gender norms of a world that oppresses women. The play, one of four plays performed by Claire Dowie in repertoire, should be shown in every school and community centre in the country.