DOGMOUTH Theatre’s celebrated stage show, Sl*ts with Consoles, returned to Reading last week ahead of a run at Edinburgh Fringe through August.
The show explores women’s experiences with gaming and within the industry through an interactive, form-breaking buddy-comedy, mixing character-based skits with hard-hitting examination of what it means to be a woman who enjoys games.
It was created for VAULT Festival in 2023 by writer and producer Alice Flynn, who also stars alongside Mia Harvey, and is directed by Rachel Isobel Heritage.
From the very start, the show is loaded with easter eggs which won’t go unnoticed by even the most casual of gamers, but is laced through with a deep connection–and affection– for videogames of all kinds.
We meet two characters who, in the grand tradition of the genre, are named by the audience, and couldn’t be less alike at first glance.
One is a playable character, well-versed in the ways of being the conduit to the gaming world for the person with the controller in hand, and the other a newly promoted NPC (non-player character) who finds herself strangely sentient for the first time.
The two work their way through the rising levels of the ‘game’, with each level charting a chapter in the journey of a girl growing up through gaming history.
From playful platforming as a young child with a Nintendo Wii, it continues through to taking on undead hordes in online Call of Duty lobbies– and everything in-between.
The conceit is a smart one, which allows the show space to explore the unbridled power of videogames to transport the player into vibrant, transcendent worlds full of mystery and magic, letting those who feel outcast freely explore their own souls as well as fantastical landscapes and stories.
However it also lets the performers explore how that power can become an insidious tool used by others to disenfranchise and harm players, especially women.
The show is unflinching in its examination of the abuse women experience, including judgement and prejudice they face from their peers during their teen years, horrific verbal abuse and misogyny levelled at them in online spaces, and even the rape and death threats which were lodged towards developers in the wake of GamerGate.
As its provocative title betrays, Sl*ts with Consoles is as much a reclamation of gaming as a space built by and for women as much as men, as it is a scathing criticism of the ways that the space has become fiercely gendered.
Through its combination of joyful, playful comedy and determined diatribes, the show perfectly encapsulates the dichotomy of what it means to be a woman who plays or makes videogames.
Both Alice Flynn and Mia Harvey are to be commended, not only for their exuberant and heartfelt performances, but for the composition of the show as a whole.
A love of the genre is not only apparent–immediately and throughout–but also serves to strengthen the show’s treatise on the abuse faced by women, giving it a powerful nuance and a forensic insight.
From waggling Wii-motes to tackling trolls, Dogmouth Theatre lays bare the face of gaming, warts and all– at once rejoicing in the power it lets the player wiel and warning of the ways it can be subverted at the expense of women and girls.
Sl*ts with Consoles is as much a love letter to gaming as it is an unflinching indictment, and a must-see for even the most casual of gaming fans.
Jubilant and judicious in equal measure, Dogmouth Theatre has once again proved to be a (tri)force to be reckoned with.
Sl*ts with Consoles is showing at Underbelly, Cowgate, as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival from Thursday, July 31 until Sunday, August 10.
It is also showing at Camden Fringe on August 19, and in Cardiff in October– with a digital, interactive version also upcoming.
Full details and tickets for upcoming events are available via: dogmouththeatre.co.uk/sluts-with-consoles
