Introduction To Rehearsal Blogs

            UNIT 9 PROJECT: ‘The Tragic Tale of Melissa Mchiney Mcnormous Mcwhale.’

This term myself and my class have created a ten-minute devised piece which investigates the themes and issues of persecution. The play is based on 'The Tragic Tale of Melissa Mchiney Mcnormous Mcwhale.' A one-act play based in Las Vegas by Walter Wykes (an American playwright and actor).

 The play is about a woman named Melissa who lives in Las Vegas, Melissa is mocked and teased by everyone around her because she has a large bum. Melissa unknowingly laps in the attention from everyone, believing that she is being celebrated. She quickly and cruelly learns that, that in fact is not the case and everyone has been blatantly laughing at her. She begins to feel isolated and self-aware, until one day she meets a man, that has abnormally large features like herself and they bond over that and form a relationship. Soon they start a family and when everyone hears of the happiness Melissa has found, they become unhappy with how they look and want to be just like her.

The primary focus of the play is the persecution of Melissa and how society forces and implements change. In this modern day, realistically the outcome could have played out much differently, for obvious reasons, Melissa is a character in a play with emotions we are supposed to find funny and we have real feelings which affect us not just emotionally but mentally and physically. In my opinion society is both the victim and the oppressor. In this case, society ridicules Melissa for not having the image society refers to as ‘normal’ and they try to coax her into physically changing herself to be like them. Then suddenly when society is ready to accept difference, the table turns, and they subject the same abuse towards those who have not changed or adapted with society. I believe this play is symbolic to the hierarchy of todays society. People who have fame are trolled every moment of everyday and feel as though they need to change themselves in order to keep their fame. So, they get surgery and use unorthodox dietary plans and then present themselves to the world as natural. So, then those who uplift them and aspire to be like them believe they need to look like them, however they do not have the money to do so, so they improve and substitute. This creates depression, anxiety, danger, and eating disorders. 

Persecution is found  everywhere in different aspects, whether its ;subliminal, small, substantial or in modern day or history. In relation to The Tale of Melissa Mchiney Mcnormous Mcwhale, a slave called Sarah Baartman,was a poor African slave who was abused by unashamed Europeans for her massive bottom and used as a circus animal. Sarah was persecuted for her race and figure.

The reason was that Baartman, also known as Sara or Saartjie, had what was called "steatopygia", resulting in extremely protuberant buttocks due to a build-up of fat.

These made her a cause of fascination when she was exhibited at a venue in London's Piccadilly Circus after her arrival. "You have to remember that, at the time, it was highly fashionable and desirable for women to have large bottoms, so lots of people envied what she had naturally, without having to accentuate her figure," says Rachel Holmes, author of The Hottentot Venus: The Life and Death of Saartjie Baartman.

On stage she wore skin-tight, flesh-coloured clothing, as well as beads and feathers, and smoked a pipe. Wealthy customers could pay for private demonstrations in their homes, with their guests allowed to touch her.

( research from :https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35240987)

The reason I am also talking about this because now it links to cultural appropriation and whitewashing. An on going topic which is sometimes political but has more recently become comical on social media is cultural appropriation. A popular conversation is who did it first and what is deemed as acceptable for another race/ethnicity or culture to appreciate. People say having a big bum is predominantly a black or latin feature, however they are wrong It is a natural feature for anyone. But now having big assets is a trend, a necessity of a lady and is more than accepted, its praise - only if it's natural.