Vagina dentata. Or, for those who need to brush up on their Latin, ‘toothed vagina’. A folk story that has permeated many cultures around the world, vagina dentata is a myth rooted in anxiety around castration, and the implication that sexual penetration could cause injury. It’s also a classic of the body horror genre (anyone else getting throwbacks to the 2007 horror-comedy Teeth?).
This cautionary tale is also at the heart of The Hero Leaves One Tooth – a sharp, entertaining and tense new satirical thriller wrapped up in a 70-minute play.
At a dinner party swathed in strained niceties, our cast of mismatched friends and lovers are cajoled into locking their smartphones inside a box for an evening of “real, analogue connection” as clumsy host Felix (Michael McStay) burns the roast and imposes a slideshow of holiday snaps on his reluctant guests. He read a book about the mental load on said holiday, so he refuses to let his anxious girlfriend Neeve (Kira-Che Heelan) lift a finger. Meanwhile, she hasn’t been able to stop texting her ex.
...you could cut the tension with a serrated tooth – in the best possible way
Hidden underneath the polite social veneer of the dinner party, a shared trauma begins to show its teeth – something akin to post-lockdown anxiety is in the air (not that everyone considers ‘the thing’ as a bad thing, though). About a decade ago, women (and other uterus havers) started to grow teeth in their vaginas. With this new hidden weapon against sexual assault, the tables have turned on the underlying culture of sexual violence.
Under the direction of Cam Turnbull, Erika J. Brennan’s sardonic script is scattered with laughter-invoking moments and deeper cuts that slice right to the bone of ever-present issues of bodily autonomy and gendered violence.
This isn’t a stock-standard play, though. The drama is intersected with projected video art and original live music. David Molloy’s video design seethes and swells with imagery of teeth and mouths and body parts and throbbing blood vessels and carnivorous plants. The musical interludes, written and composed by Jake Nielson (On Hold (A Musical), Miss Westralia), heighten the mood.
Early on, the cast converges on the stage (Meg Anderson’s production design sets the scene in an archetypal young couple’s apartment) with instruments in hand to perform ‘Dentata’ – a gutsy ballad evocative of Russian folk music (step aside, The Great Comet) that alludes to the bitey myth at the show’s core. Later on, the couple’s friend Kadi (Cara Whitehouse, as seen in I Want It That Gay) picks up the mic for ‘Here I Come’, a song evocative of ’90s pop-punk and “angry girl music of the indie rock persuasion”.
The songs are bangers (and I sincerely hope they’ll drop on Spotify). However, and while The Hero Leaves One Tooth is definitely not a musical, it could stand to introduce a couple more songs so that the musical numbers we do enjoy don’t feel so random. An adjustment to the sound balancing on the night we bore witness would have also been welcome, so that we could have heard the singers more clearly.
Back to the drama. For much of the play, you could cut the tension with a serrated tooth – in the best possible way. The cast of characters, both invited and not invited, would all be at home in a hodge-podge gathering in an Inner West sharehouse. It's the archetypal dinner party from hell, yet the gradual unearthing of sordid affairs doesn't feel heavy handed, nor does the excavation of trauma. Female rage brews and bubbles below the surface – this pussy bites back. Brennan doesn't necessarily offer solutions, but there is something cathartic in its honesty, and in the conversations it can fuel.
Much of this play’s honesty is found in the intersection where horror and satire meet. When done well, these genres can warmly curl up together like a pair of feuding feline siblings who don’t want you to know that they secretly love each other. There's nothing as bone-chilling as seeing the banality of everyday life with the volume turned all the way up – whether it's an unbearable dinner show host making you sit through his 100-item slideshow, or the same guy helplessly reverting back to presenting that slideshow right after his partner launches into a devastating monologue of personal pain.
The Hero Leaves One Tooth gives space to process the everyday fears and frustrations of moving through the world as a woman or as a femme-presenting person. It’s a promising offering from button-pushing independent theatre company Ratcatch (in association with bAKEHOUSE Theatre Company) and an exciting addition to the inaugural season at Kings Cross Theatre’s new home, KXT on Broadway.
If you’ve been hooked on the ideas explored in the new Toni Collette-fronted series The Power, this show will cut a little closer to home for Australian viewers. And don’t forget – no dentata, no comment.
(Hot tip: they’re giving away some great stickers and badges for this show in the foyer with vulvic designs and killer slogans.)
The Hero Leaves One Tooth plays at KXT on Broadway, Ultimo, from July 14-29, 2023. Tickets range from $30-$45 and you can snap yours up over here.
