Claire Dowie, Caroline Burns Cooke

An incredible drama double bill featuring Caroline Burns Cooke’s “And The Rope Still Tugging Her Feet”, a one woman dramatisation of the Kerry Babies Scandal of 1984 in which Burns Cooke takes on multiple roles as she tells the story of a single mother erroneously accused of the murder of a new-born baby. This is a compelling performance of this shocking story of misogyny, police corruption and the intolerance of the Irish church that happened well within living memory. In contrast, this is followed by Why Is John Lennon Wearing a Skirt? Written and performed by Claire Dowie and first presented in 1990 at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, this is a fierce and subversive monologue about gender expectations and stereotypes, spoken by someone who doesn’t want to be a ‘girl’, doesn’t want to wear skirts, wants to be John Lennon. What begins as frustration at the impracticality of the compulsory school skirt – only good for showing off legs and no good for playing football – becomes an articulate and passionate invective against obligatory femininity. Why Is John Lennon Wearing A Skirt? Is a powerful condemnation of society’s aggressive reinforcement of gender constructs, and the difficulties of finding a way to be who you want to be.