Rowena Hutson owes her feminist outlook on life to action heroes of the 1980s. It sounds bizarre if not downright impossible to get that result from such a bunch of awesome but problematic blockbuster protagonists, but Hutson sets out to prove that Han Solo and his like, have taught her some important lessons in her formative years about standing up for herself.
It feels like the show is split into two segments
There are plenty of characters you’ll recognise in Hutson’s show: the performance begins with a quick rundown of the Die Hard films. Immediately we see Hutson is all about showdowns and fake blood. That said, her jokes are surprisingly gentle and she doesn’t really create the biting commentary which could be created when discussing film heroes from this action genre.
About halfway through the show takes a decidedly different turn, the tone shifting completely. In hindsight I wonder if the show should be advertised as spoken word instead, a genre in which it would thrive as an emotionally honest performance. Hutson conveys some incredibly personal stories which are hard to really laugh with, because they deal with some very mature themes. It feels like the show is split into two segments, of which the spoken word segment builds to an emotional swell which makes it a far more gripping section of the show. The commentary on the treatment of women in action films feels a bit rote now amongst various Buzzfeed and AV Club articles on the same subject, but Hutson is an enjoyable presence to be around.
