She Stole My Every Rock and Roll is a forty minute roll the in hey, did you say love?
A tough tale of two women in, out and in between love, the show takes poetry like a fine glass of wine and throws down a quick shot of lust, followed by a hangover you won’t want to miss. The show blends popular romance, slam poetry and the occasional dirty limerick to create a poetic narrative about love in a modern age.
She Stole My Every Rock and Roll subverts the classic boy meets girl formula to reshape romance in a contemporary queer love story that calls on the cheesy of 50s soul lyrics and the devastating currency of heartbreak.
Co-authored by Eleanor Jackson and Betsy Turcot as The Belles of Hell, it was performed at the Anywhere Theatre Festival in Brisbane, with the lovely festival reviewer noting that he was:
listening with his eyes closed, for the words were so rich and evocative that you didn’t want to miss a thing.
The effervescent blogger Bri Lee, probably shocked the pants of her mother when she blogged,
I have to mention too, that it’s a love story (but so much more than that) between two women, and I’m not gay, but I was totally engrossed. I’m going to be honest and embarrass myself here and say that prior to last night I didn’t give a lot of thought to queer film because I presumed I wouldn’t be totally engaged. And so now I realise what a STUPID FUCK I was to think that and I feel like my universe of potential interests just exploded. I mean the sexy parts were SO SEXY. I feel like anyone who saw She Stole My Every Rock and Roll who was actually interested in women must have just creamed.
While Nerissa Rowan from Arts Hub, described the show as,
“…honed to perfection for its Anywhere Theatre Festival season.
Betsy and Eleanor are easy to listen to, with rich smooth voices that draw you into the domestic drama. Much like the famous Elizabethan playwrights, these two poets tell a moving story using rhythm and rhyme, delivered in a natural style.
The text is part conversation, part internal monologue, bound together with a tempestuous undercurrent of emotion.
She Stole My Every Rock and Roll is a pleasure to watch, even at its most heartbreaking.
4.5 out of 5 starts
Title: She Stole My Every Rock and Roll
Co-authors: Betsy Turcot and Eleanor Jackson
Duration: 40 mins
Details: Two-person poetry dialogue
Premiered: Queensland Poetry Festival 2011
Featured: Melbourne Overload Poetry Festival 2011, Global Poetics Tour 2011, Woodford Folk Festival 2011, Anywhere Theatre Festival 2012, Brisbane Writers Festival 2013, Same Same but Different (New York Tour) 2014
eleanor j jackson 