PRETTY UGLY
the time i accidentally (on purpose) became a teenager again and catfished an online predator
★★★★★ - Exeunt ★★★★ - WhatsOnStage ★★★★ - FemaleArts
★★★★ - EverythingTheatre ★★★★ - AYoungerTheatre ★★★★ - OneStopArts
“Pretty Ugly feels genuinely urgent and deeply necessary. It demands, and deserves, to be seen.”
“A smartly constructed... slippery piece of entrapment”
“A timely, powerful performance from Louise Orwin - very impressive stuff.”
This show is about you rating me based solely on my looks...
It is also about a recent worldwide trend of teenage girls posting videos on YouTube asking viewers to rate their looks. And what happened when I tried it myself.
In 2013, I lived online as three teenage alter-egos. Pretty Ugly follows my trail of research into how Generation YouTube uses the ever widening field of social networking to reach others. There is a live YouTube experiment, some Britney, a tender and inappropriate love story, and some of my childhood toys. It is about our obsessions, and pretensions, and teenage girls- but don't let that put you off. It is about you and me and the internet.
…………………………………..
Pretty Ugly originally started its life as an innocent YouTube experiment. After noticing a world-wide trend of teenage girls posting videos asking viewers to rate their looks, I created three fake teenage-alter egos and posted my own videos. Within a week these videos went viral, and so this experiment spiralled completely out of control. (you can find the full story here). At the same time as these videos being live on YouTube I presented them initially as a video installation (shown at Bush Theatre, London and Cambridge Junction) , and then subsequently developed the research material into a full length performance at Camden People's Theatre on their prestigious Starting Block's scheme. It received its full London premiere at Camden People's Theatre headlining their very first Calm Down, Dear Festival of Feminism in October 2014.
2012/2013 was one of the wildest years of my artist life. As the show began its previews in London, I was speaking to the MET police about some of the [cough] investigative journalism I had done (spoiler alert: I may have accidentally baited a paedophile), as well as dealing with my first actual online trolling. Oh the irony, of doing a show about having been trolled as a teenager in disguise, and now I was being trolled as an actual IRL full-blooded artist human. The trolling began as an interview I did with Wired around the show went viral, and consequently I had to nix the online experiment. Following this the story of the show and its research went viral and was featured in The New York Times, Wired Magazine, The Independent, The Daily Mail, The Telegraph, El Pais, Suddeutschezeitung, and online publications globally. I was also interviewed on Woman’s Hour (BBCR4), Sunrise TV (Australia), Fusion and NBC News (US). You can find links to press mentions here.
Past Dates: Live Art DK (Aalborg, DK), Nottingham Playhouse, Camden People's Theatre, Buzzcut Festival, Southbank Centre, Forest Fringe Edinburgh, Marlborough Theatre Brighton, Tripspace London, Bush Theatre, Vogue Fabrics, Hatch Nottingham, Smashlab London.
To discuss touring, workshops and talks related to this show please contact: producer@louiseorwin.com
Generously supported by Camden People's Theatre, The Basement Brighton, and Arts Council England.
