When Germaine Greer’s The Female Eunuch was issued in America, a trans woman approached Greer and thanked her for all she’d done ‘for us girls’. Piss/CARNATION’s Ugly Sisters explores the contradictory relationship between Greer’s pioneering genius for feminism and her derision of trans women. It embraces the unsightly, the broken and the powerful in a fluid fight to express, without outright attacking Greer’s transphobic positions, showing Greer more empathy than she has given to the trans community. 

Ugly Sisters asks the audience to allow themselves to be drawn into a cacophony of turmoil and intimate passion emerging from creative expression and cabaret. It opens (without ruining things) violently though comedically, in a twisted manner. In 1989, Greer quoted the trans woman who approached her in a follow-up article, ‘On Why Sex Change Is a Lie’, a degrading piece which reduced the trans woman to a non-entity in ‘flapping draperies’, a puffy green number which makes frequent appearances in Ugly Sisters. Various sensationalist quotes from the article are projected onto the back of the set throughout the performance.

The crux is to repeat the opening encounter of Greer and the trans woman, time and again, with varying angles and outcomes, the pulsating sound design and discombobulating lighting growing more volatile. Each sense is challenged in the one-hour performance, creating a space that is fervent and stylish as award-winning writers and performers Laurie Ward and Charli Cowgill’s choreographed storytelling ripples in moments of pathos-ridden absurdist vigour to give this unnamed trans woman agency. 

Through urgent scenes, Ugly Sisters builds on the impact of being seen by someone you admire, exploring the betrayal once they step beyond a first encounter. Threading faux-Q&A, intimacy and a smattering of audience participation, Ward and Cowgill’s thought-provoking expression of art, absurdist as it may be, gets over every intended beat, ensuring the audience knows it’s okay to be an ally but not grasp every intricate detail. 

There are no apologies here. Ugly Sisters plunges verbatim theatre into the ruthless outskirts of performance art and alternative body-comedy. For this alone, it does more than most to express itself and make its intention and identity clear, never backing down. For those who find resonance in this intense psychedelic grapple of sisterhood, transphobia and femininity, it’s a rare, stimulating form of expressive alternate theatre.

Ugly Sisters, Underbelly Cowgate, until 25 August, 6.30pm.