by Hannah Rose
“All you need for a movie is a gun and a girl,” quipped Jean-Luc Godard. Images of scantily clad women waving weapons around are commonplace in the media. It’s troubling to think how often we consume this image: Charlie’s Angels with their high-heeled kicks and sniper rifles; Bond women emerging from the sea with a pistol stowed away in a pair of knickers, and even pop music’s favourite feminists — Beyoncé and Lady Gaga — wear matching white bodysuits and brandish plastic-looking revolvers whilst singing something about a telephone. Watch out, those gals are gyrating and dangerous.
Louise Orwin is set to interrogate the French film director’s disconcerting adage in her new piece of live performance, A Girl and A Gun, at Norwich Arts Centre on October 5th. Set up on stage as a piece of live film-making, Orwin cross-examines Godard’s central (and sexist) idea through a range of genres, voices and scenarios with a new and unsuspecting male performer each night — who has never seen the script before. A Girl and a Gun looks to be razor-sharp in its observation, and rich in different cinematic styles, thus promising a bit of something for everyone.
Tickets can be purchased through the Norwich Arts Centre website or in person.
Featured image: Louise Orwin © Field and McGlynn
