Despite being a huge Caitlin Moran fan I didn’t really know what to expect from this performance.
Apart from the odd panel show appearance I was a lot more familiar with her three novels and articles in The Times, as well as her 140-character Twitter musings.
Would this be a straight two-hour stand-up routine, a literary evening reflecting on her latest book (from which the show gets its title) or an all-out feminist rally?
The answer is, all of the above!
After welcoming everyone into her ‘Wombiverse’ the evening starts with Moran requesting that the 1,700-strong audience stand on their chairs and declare “I am a Feminist!”.
This invitation was, of course, also extended to the men in attendance, whom made up around 20% of the audience and included former Smiths drummer Mike Joyce.
The first half of the show, or ‘the worthy bit’ as the performer put it, was “a healthy smoothie for the soul” where Moran would flit between personal anecdotes and extracts from her latest novel to raise issues including the pressures on young girls, how it is art and culture not politics that change perceptions and why we should look after our planet rather than seeking the chance of life on another.
This all sounds very heavy for an evening with a sitcom writer, but these issues were deliciously juxtaposed with anecdotes of ‘coming on’ in director Richard Curtis’ holiday cottage and discussing clown pornography with Jeremy Paxman.
In second half of the show, or “the gin and bacon sandwich bit”, Moran gives a warts and all account of how she got where she is today, a 40-year-old mother of two who can look in the mirror and say she likes what she sees.
This journey in recounted via a number of hilarious anecdotes, from a social outcast at primary school, to the deconstruction of her teenage body anxieties and her years of sexual exploration.
Moran certainly doesn’t pull any punches and I couldn’t help think that some of her stories about menstruation and masturbation may have been a little more cringe worthy if not delivered in her honest and affable style.
On arrival to the Lowry everyone was presented with a free signed copy of Caitlin’s latest novel and she even stayed behind to personally greet everyone on the way out, an all round class act!
