‘I figure, if a girl wants to be a legend, she should just go ahead and be one.’ Calamity Jane
The gun-slinging, foul-mouthed cowgirl Calamity Jane has become a legend of the American Wild West. A spinster, a notorious liar and a violent drunk, she lived and dressed like a man in a protofeminist era – yet in her death, unwittingly became a pin-up girl.
In 1953, Calamity Jane’s legend was given the ultimate makeover – a Hollywood musical starring Doris Day as the soft-hearted cowgirl who uses her feminine charm to rope the man of her dreams.
Calamity explores one wild woman with two wildly different stories.
Brought to you by feminist trailblazers The Zoey Louise Moonbeam Dawson Shakespeare Company, Calamity looks at the way difficult women are mythologised – often into palatable perkiness. Part musical, part western and part biography, Calamity speaks to something violent in all of us – the space between who we are, and how we want to be remembered.
Post-show NEON CONVERSATION
Sunday 31 May
Representing the Real vs. Modern Myth Making
The Zoey Louise Moonbeam Dawson Shakespeare Company with Lally Katz