We inherit our sex lives: from movies and books, from past lovers, from porn. And we learn: sex is mostly heterosexual. Women are desired. Men do the desiring and sex is over when he comes.

Shattering these ideas, Body Double blends memoir, erotic fiction, scientific research and the language of Hollywood to expose the invisible rules that shape our relationships. Dating and dancing and orgasms and desire are exploded and re-examined with playful precision. 

Body Double combines live performance and projection, offering a fearless new gaze on contemporary romance.

“If you are a woman or have ever wanted to fuck a woman, you too should see it. If you’ve ever caught yourself intellectualising the problematic-ness of literally everything you’ve ever loved, you’ll like Body Double. ”
— Wellingtonista
““A grand wild ride””
— NZ Herald
““Both a wry laugh and a howl of rage””
— Metro

CREATIVE TEAM

  • Created by Eleanor Bishop & Julia Croft with Karin McCracken

  • Direction: Eleanor Bishop

  • Performance: Julia Croft & Karin McCracken

  • Media Design: Kevin Ramser

  • Scenography: Lucy Pope

  • Sound Design: Te Aihe Butler

  • Lighting Design: Marcus McShane

  • Associate Media Design: Owen McCarthy (Auckland season)

  • Production Management: Vicki Cooksley of Entertainment Production Services

  • Media & Scenography Assistance: Kasey Collins (Wellington season)

  • Produced by Lydia Zanetti & Helen Sheehan of Zanetti Productions (Wellington season)

  • Co-produced by Silo Theatre & Auckland Arts Festival (Auckland season)

  • Production Photography: Tabitha Arthur (Wellington season) & Andrew Malmo (Auckland season)

“There is a lot to love about this, watching these two women express themselves on stage with such honesty while still being caring and empathetic. They’re clever and intellectual and funny. They light a fire of confidence inside me.”
— Pantograph Punch

PRESENTATIONS

  • BATS Theatre, STAB Commission 2017, November 9 - 25, 2017 (Wellington, New Zealand)
    Winner: The Jack Jeffs Charitable Trust Award for Production of the Year - Wellington Theatre Awards 2017

  • Q Theatre Loft, Auckland Arts Festival & Silo Theatre, March 20 - 29, 2018 (Auckland, New Zealand)

REVIEWS

  • "Ambitious, complex, subversive, compelling sensory discussion", Zoe Joblin, Theatreview, November 11, 2017

  • "Body Double", Courtney Rose Brown, Art Murmurs, November 11, 2017

  • "Review: Body Double", Jessica Ducey, The Wellingtonista, November 15, 2017

  • "Richly provocative", John Smythe, Theatreview, November 17, 2017

  • "One Eye On The Mirror: A Review of Body Double", Hannah Banks, The Pantograph Punch, November 18, 2017

  • "Female Desire in Experimental Postdramatic Theatre", David O'Donnell, The Theatre Times, December 23, 2017

  • "Body Double is a wild ride", Janet McAllister, NZ Herald, March 23, 2018

  • "Body Double: The raucous chat you have with your friend, only on stage", Lizzie Marvelly, The Villainesse, March 23, 2018

  • "Reviews: Auckland Arts Festival", Frances Moore, Radio NZ, March 23, 2018

  • "Most disturbing use of a chicken carcass", Susannah Walker, Metro, March 26, 2018

  • "a cutting look at the stories we feed ourselves in literature, stage and screen", Renee Liang, The Big Idea, April 16, 2018

AWARDS

  • The Jack Jeffs Charitable Trust Production of the Year: Body Double

  • The George Webby Most Promising Newcomer Award: Karin McCracken

  • Lighting Designer of the Year: Marcus McShane (Wellington Theatre Awards 2017)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PRESS

  • "An interview with Julia Croft, as she re-writes the script on female sexuality", NZgirl, October 5, 2017

  • "Karin McCracken: Female Desire", The Big Idea, November 1, 2017

  • "Our Arts Inspiration: From the creators of Body Double", ARTicle magazine, November 3, 2017

  • "Body Double: Julia Croft & Karin McCracken", Wallace Chapman, Radio NZ, November 5, 2017

  • "Female pleasure and representation explored in two productions", Dani McDonald, Dominion Post, November 11, 2017

  • "Us two: Eleanor Bishop & Julia Croft", Britt Mann, Sunday Magazine, November 12, 2017

  • "Lizzie Marvelly: We need to take the sexism out of sex", NZ Herald, November 25, 2017

  • "The Challengers: Eleanor Bishop & Julia Croft", Dionne Christian, Viva Magazine, December 30, 2017

  • "Bookmarks with Eleanor Bishop", Radio NZ, February 21, 2018

  • "Body Double: The play putting female sexual desire centre stage", The Villainesse, March 11, 2018

  • "Woman, feminist, theatre maker", Victoria News, March 19, 2018

  • "The Viewer and the Viewed: Sex and Desire in Body Double", Pantograph Punch, March 23, 2018

  • "Everything the movies taught us about sex is a lie", The Spinoff, March 27, 2018

WORKS CITED

  • Barthes, Roland. A Lover's Discourse. Translated by Richard Howard. 1977. Vintage, 2002.

  • Kraus, Chris. I Love Dick. 1997. Semiotext(e) / Native Agents, 2006.

  • Tolstoy, Leo. Anna Karenina. Translated by Rosamund Bartlett. Oxford University Press, 2014.

  • Fear. Directed by James Foley, performance by Reese Witherspoon and Mark Wahlberg, Universal Pictures, 1996.

  • The Notebook. Directed by Nick Cassavetes, performances by Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams, New Line Cinema, 2004.

FURTHER READING

Books

  • Bird, Hera Lindsay. Hera Lindsay Bird. Victoria University Press, 2016.

  • Bergner, Daniel. What Do Women Want?: Adventures in the Science of Female Desire. Ecco, 2014.

  • Bolick, Kate. Spinster: Making a Life of One's Own. Crown, 2015.

  • Friedman Jaclyn & Jessica Valenti. Yes Means Yes!: Visions of Female Sexual Power & a World Without Rape. Seal Press, 2008.

  • Harding, Kate. Asking for it: The Alarming Rise of Rape Culture-and What We Can Do about It. Da Capo Lifelong Books, 2015.

  • Nelson, Maggie. The Argonauts. Graywolf Press, 2016.

  • Orenstein, Peggy. Girls and Sex. Harper, 2016.

  • Zilbergeld, Bernie. The New Male Sexuality. Bantam, 1999.

Articles

  • Bergner, Daniel. “What do women want?”, New York Times, January 22, 2009.

  • Bolick, Kate. "All the Single Ladies", The Atlantic, November 2011.

  • Clark-Chadwick, Sara B. & Sari M. van Anders. "Do Women's Orgasms Function as a Masculinity Achievement for Men?" The Journal of Sex Research, Vol. 54, Iss.9, 2017.

  • Clark-Flory, Tracy. "The truth about female desire: It’s base, animalistic and ravenous", Salon, June 1, 2013.

  • Dederer, Claire. "Why is it so hard for women to write about sex?" The Atlantic, March 2014.

  • Massey, Alana. "The Dickonomics of Tinder", Medium, April 30, 2015.

  • Orenstein, Peggy. "When Did Porn Become Sex Ed?" New York Times, March 19, 2016.

  • Sales, Nancy Jo. "Tinder and the Dawn of the 'Dating Apocalypse'", Vanity Fair, September 2015.

  • Traister, Rebecca. "Why consensual sex can still be bad", NY Mag, October 20, 2015.

Visual art