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Julia Masli & Paulina Lenoir in Former Gentlemen’s Locker Room

 
Isabella Thompson Review by Isabella Thompson 5 Published: 10 Aug 2025 Summerhall Show Dates: 4 Aug 2025-10 Aug 2025

A delicate yet subversive act of liberation, Masli and Lenoir dissolve the line between performance and communion in their hour in the Former Gentlemen’s Locker Room. As mischievous as it is soothing, this is a quietly radical exploration of sensuality, intimacy, and connection.

A profoundly transformative and cathartic piece of theatre.

Masli and Lenoir have created something sacred, and to reveal too much would be to rob the audience of the joyful sense of discovery they bring to the space. To write about it at all feels like trespassing on their magic, but to leave their brilliance undocumented would be just as criminal.

We watch, transfixed, as Masli and Lenoir brush shoulders with audience members who are crammed into a bathroom, squeezing into stalls and crouching on the tiled floor. The two nuns waft calmly from toilet to sink, washing their hands as they go. Their silent serenity sets the tone: a graceful veil behind which a delightful trouble brews.

Once we arrive in the space, woven in between their silent exchanges is Audre Lorde’s powerful speech, Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic As Power. We listen to Lorde overthrow the patriarchal erasure of women’s eroticism as we watch the pair interact and play with one another in the subtlest of exchanges. The result is a deeply moving and equally playful commentary on sensuality and inhibition, reclaiming eroticism as a force of connection rather than objectification.

Breaking the silence is a deeply personal exchange between the two, which feels authentic and grounded, revealing layers of history and friendship. Their chemistry is palpable, and their willingness to reveal themselves both physically and emotionally lends the piece a profound sincerity. Masli and Lenoir’s powerful dignity commands the space. As Marc Chagall once said, “The dignity of the artist lies in his duty of keeping awake the sense of wonder in the world,” and this piece embodies that fully. Their performances balance stillness with moments of bubbling, cheeky energy, never losing the thread of tender humanity that runs throughout.

Julia Masli & Paulina Lenoir in Former Gentlemen’s Locker Room is a profoundly transformative and cathartic piece of theatre. Hypnotic, moving, and deeply powerful, this is a secret that must be shared. If you see anything this year, it must be this.

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The Blurb:

On June 2015 Paulina and Julia met for the first time at an afterparty in France. Paulina thought she would be sleeping at Julia’s, due to a miscommunication. Julia offered the floor of her bedroom in confusion. Paulina had been promised a bed, so that didn’t sound right. Paulina did not stay on Julia’s floor.

Ten years later they’ve shared a bed, meals, peed together, dressed each other, betrayed each other, made up, grieved together, went out dancing, shopping, met each other’s families, analysed each other’s dreams, shared therapists, brushed teeth together, spent Christmas together, wore each other’s dirty socks, learnt to sing together, got rejected from a nightclub, sat in silence in cafes crying, started ambitious projects that didn’t materialise and kept each other’s secrets.

Today they ask you for 60 minutes of your time, regarding a matter very close to their hearts. What they mean to say is sharing their work with you may just make everything ok?