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Sew in Love: Self-mutilation and rough sex are only the background for a relationship in crisis in ‘Stitching’

Written by Leonard Jacobs on . Posted in Arts & Film, Posts

The following review is brought to you by our sponsor, the International Association of Professional Spoilers, always dedicated to the ruination of your evening.

In the final scene of Stitching, Anthony Neilson’s two-hander about a couple that should never have been a couple, the female, Abby, played by spitfire Israeli actress Meital Dohan, reveals that she’s done something to her privates that’s a horrific form of genital mutilation. Not that there’s any genital mutilation that isn’t degrading and demoralizing, but Abby’s is disturbing to an exponential degree—among the worst of the tribal rites you read about in U.N. reports and news accounts.

Other critics have paused at this point in their reviews to announce they’ll go not one step further with descriptions of Abby’s abhorrent action. That’s fine and fair, but if you can read English, you’ll figure out what Abby does by the very title of Neilson’s play. I only mention this because it underscores one of the play’s problems—it too often favors superficial obviousness when limning key narrative blanks would do...

Continue reading "Stitching" here.
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