Unbecoming – Summerhall

This deeply personal solo piece, by Anna Porubcansky of Company of Wolves, unmasks the artist’s windswept inner world in all its dreamlike complexity, through poetry, song and performance.

The show opens with a lament.  A melodic dirge about loss, death and mortality.  Porubcansky’s clear, plaintive singing voice is perfect here, and there are some lines of poetry which will stay with me for very a long time. Here, and elsewhere in the show, Porubcansky uses technology to layer her vocalisations, drawing on repetition to create a richly meditative atmosphere.

Porubcansky’s openness and vulnerability, as a poet and performer, is exquisite.  This is not a work of fiction: all the content comes from Porubcansky’s personal experience.  She really shows up, emotionally naked, embracing her sensations and insecurities. Afterwards, Porubcansky admits that every time she performs this piece, the preparation is hard.  She has to really feel, to be in her body.

Winding down is also difficult. We are invited to contemplate the ways in which the artist is her own instrument. Porubcansky seeks to open up discussion with audiences, and likes to visit smaller communities, holding workshops and discussions alongside the show.

Porubcansky says that the show was inspired by her experiences as a new mother, and the unexpected ways in which this transformation shook her identity.  Alongside the fulfilment, love, and delight of motherhood, many of us experience something profoundly challenging – a kind of grief, perhaps – that we rarely speak about. I am grateful to Porubcansky for touching on this topic, and I wonder if she will revisit this idea in more depth in her future work.

The show deals with the difficult parts of the artist’s psyche – her fears, her losses, her mortality.  I would have liked to have seen more evidence of the joy that is also an essential part of the human experience. This is an intensely personal piece, and Porubcansky’s experience of womanhood is rooted in the domesticated culture of the 1950s. What other aspects of experience would other women emphasize in a piece like this, and to what extent are we all stuck in the past?  I noticed that there is no clear narrative to the piece, and I would like it if there was – but others may differ.

For me, the highlights of this show were the beautiful works of poetry, and the emotional openness of the performer.  The show is designed to provoke reflection and discussion and succeeds admirably in achieving this goal.

Reviewer: Wendy McEwan

Reviewed: 24th March 2023

North West End UK Rating: ★★★