In her funny and articulate show, Hannah Chutzpah presents her considered and inspiring take on the complexities of power and permission. Through poems that are tightly crafted stories and chat that’s amusing and well-researched, she contemplates how social class, gender, race and personality all have a part to play in the risks we feel able to take in life. Telling the story of her own personal journey from isolated teen to confident performance poet, she reflects on privilege in all its forms and hypothesises on the thorny issue of social conditioning.
This is an inspiring show, unapologetic in its assertion that everyone has the right to live life on their own terms.
Her poems take us through a whole range of observations. She cleverly reveals how self-consciousness can be a self-fulfilling prophecy in a story about a shy young girl who keeps asking for permission for everything. Her annoying refrain (‘Oh, can I have some of that too please’) eventually isolates her further from a group of teenagers who are irritated by her constant need for reassurance. Elsewhere, she explores how wealth breeds an inherent sense of entitlement and that those lucky enough to be privileged need to be aware that they’re ‘playing life on easy mode’.
Hannah asks nobody’s permission to vocalise her strong political and social opinions through her fiery poetry. This is an inspiring show, unapologetic in its assertion that everyone has the right to live life on their own terms.
