Expensive Shit

Expensive Shit reveals the ways in which the male gaze still reigns supreme and women continue to struggle under the weight of objectification, in the dual contexts of present-day Britain and Fela Kuti's revolutionary politics in the Nigeria of the 1980s and 1990s. The play is performed by an all-female cast.

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One toilet attendant. Two sets of toilets. One night. Worlds apart. The country change, the city change, the people dem think they change, but I tell you dem shit the same. Dem all dey run from it the same. A nightclub toilet attendant in a fictional club based on the Shimmy Club in Glasgow. Her conflicted journey spliced with flashbacks to the toilets of the Shrine nightclub in Lagos, Nigeria, where her younger self dreams of becoming a dancer in the revolutionary band of the late Nigerian musician, Fela Kuti. Tolu is paid next to nothing by the club, so she relies on tips from people using the toilets. Driven by the need to earn more money, she manipulates the behaviour of the women in the toilets for the titillation of the men watching behind the mirrors. But how far is Tolu prepared to go? The play is set in the toilets of the Glasgow nightclub, and also in the toilets of The Shrine club in Lagos, Nigeria, where a younger Tolu dreams of becoming a dancer in the revolutionary band of Fela Kuti.