Review: Wendy Houstoun / Watch It!

Censorship takes centre-stage in solo show

Like all performance, Wendy Houstoun’s “Watch it!” is personal, political and subjective and this review, like all reviews, will be the same.

“Watch it!” begins with Houstoun jogging – literally, she energetically moves on the spot – through a monologue about the activism of the 1980s and 90s. It’s verbally and physically fast-paced with lots of witty wordplay – “Tony Blair and his backing spinners” for example – to describe the decades.

The show then moves into the present day where Houstoun is a competitor in a game show called “Watch it!”, in which she needs to make it through a whole show without offending anyone, otherwise the alarms go off, and after three strikes she will have to leave the stage.

Scenes that explore identity, freedom of speech and expression, gender critical feminism (‘TERF’ is one of the words illuminated on a projector screen) and social media follow. A voiceover says “who do you think you are?”, “you need to be quiet and listen for a change” – while the question that Houstoun poses is: “I do wonder, am I oppressor or victim?”

Houstoun’s material doesn’t set about causing offence directly, I don’t believe. She talks around causing offence – for example, her final strike comes when she mentions JK Rowling but she doesn’t discuss the views that Rowling holds, although when she is off stage we hear a voice informing her that she can’t talk about biology in public.

There has been lots of discussion around cancel culture but personalities and performers who complain about it seem to be offered a platform to do so, which rather undermines their point. Houstoun has taken on a topic of our times and the game show concept is an interesting way to frame it. However, this piece asks if self-censorship is driving thought underground. Houstoun seems to want to say that it is but I would argue that the very existence of this show means that the answer is no.

More representation of other views, encompassing the different status, reach and amplification of different platforms, would have added nuance to this piece, that I was left feeling missed the mark.