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Watch It!

 
Mark Harding Review by Mark Harding 3 Published: 17 Aug 2025 Zoo Southside Show Dates: 11 Aug 2025-24 Aug 2025

Wendy Houstoun has never shied away from complex subjects. There aren’t many more slippery than the theme of this show. There is sometimes ridiculous talk of a performer being “brave” – but this show is genuinely brave.

Pushing uncomfortable buttons

Houstoun warms us up with a train-of-thought run-through of social history through the 80s and 90s. It’s very funny, and she’s very charming.

Houstoun needs all her charm for the rest of the performance, where she is portrayed as the sole contestant in a gameshow called Watch it!. She gets three strikes for offences against “woke” – after that she’s cancelled.

Animations and video clips punctuate the performance, along with plenty of jokes. She discusses her multiracial background; there are light-relief asides that transform into ambiguous metaphors of privilege or appropriation.

There’s a powerful sequence dramatising social media’s dark undercurrent of paranoia, with the fear of hostility and the implication of physical violence.

The show faces up to the anxiety of causing offence – of failing to keep up with whichever topic is the new sensitivity, or the latest nuance of language. There’s fear of youth.

But does giving credence to these anxieties simply feed the hysteria of what is actually an exaggerated problem? Maybe Houstoun is turning a bit gammon? Or maybe I’m guilty of being a bit too woke?

Houstoun knows she is pushing uncomfortable buttons – on a tightrope without a safety net of common agreement.

The slippery nature of the topic is why it induces paranoia. I’m not entirely convinced by Houstoun’s gameshow – but isn’t that her point?

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The Blurb:

Masterful storytelling, daring dance and subversively stupid conversations from this unstoppable artist. Watch It! is an entertaining, tightly organised game show for one about identity, personal truth and political ideology. 'Superbly written and flawlessly delivered in the manner of an accomplished stand-up comedian. It's punchy and full of wit' (Gramilano.com). Wendy Houstoun teams up with Kate Champion (Australia) and Hannes Langolf (UK, Germany) to create this personal and irreverent solo. Made with financial support as part of DV8 Physical Theatre's Legacy Commissions.