Yoga Bitch

After a successful run in London, Suzanne Morrison brings her one-woman show Yoga Bitch to the intimate confines of the Burton-Taylor theatre in Oxford. Morrison tells the story of her search for enlightenment at yoga boot camp through an engaging and highly entertaining monologue. Though she considers herself first and foremost a writer, she is at ease on stage and a skilled storyteller, drawing the audience in as if in conversation. It is not surprising to learn that the story is her own, based almost entirely on real experiences.

Fleeing boyfriend troubles in the States, she embarks on a two month yoga training in Bali, Indonesia. She spends eight hours a day stretching, bending and meditating and learning that yoga can be even more bizarre than wanting to float on a cloud (as she mocks in her opening lines). Indeed, it can even involve drinking pee (and yes, she does) or exorcising a blender. Morrison is engagingly honest whilst still being downright hilarious, as she describes her struggles to resist the coconut vanilla milkshake and the perfect pistachio green Prada handbag. Her lampoons of fellow yoginis including the farting Louisa, the astral-projecting Lou and the newly re-virginised housemate Jessica, are very funny, and ironically with little trace of bitchiness.

Her main prop is a yoga mat, which she uses to great effect as she moves the audience from one scene to the next. A simple backdrop of panels and a potted palm allows the audience the space to imagine themselves in Bali, whilst the small jar of pee (hopefully apple juice…) makes the moment where she drinks it even more excruciating. And though the technician claims to only have an outline with bullet points to go by, the use of lighting at precisely the right moments adds the finishing touches to the performance.

Yoga Bitch doesn’t try to be anything more than a great story, and in doing so, is very successful. It’s a light-hearted comedy with a few nuggets of insight, and will likely keep you laughing no matter if you’ve practised yoga, and even if you’ve never even heard of a ‘Kundalini’ experience.

Kate Bottriell (Unverified), 31/08/07

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Yoga offers many positions that can help one achieve great pleasure, as aficionados and / or the daringly experimental can testify. But few are quite as pleasant as the position I found myself in watching Yoga Bitch on a trip to London two weeks ago.

Though I went to the theatre with appropriate circumspection and cynicism, as many good British folk do when approaching such things as yoga, I was delightfully impressed. This show, brought to the UK by Theodolite Productions and starring Susan Morrison, proved entertaining, insightful and above all very funny. For anyone who has ever had more than a cursory brush with members of the so called "New Age", this show will doubtless appeal.

Morrison, Seattle-born and based, has written this autobiographical play which recounts some of her experiences of an intense two month yoga retreat in Bali. Ludicrous episodes including the exorcism of a blender, urine drinking to fend off "Bali Belly" and the ecstasy of having one's very own "Kundalini Experience" had me laughing from beginning to end.

Morrison recounts these and other experiences in this one-woman show. She represents many different characters throughout the show, and her performance is both accomplished and entertaining.

Aside from the humour, the play also intelligently offers a window into the world of those peculiar souls perpetually clambering for "enlightenment" and the next spiritual high. Impressively, it did so honestly, neither with condescension nor reverence toward said individuals.

The play has some crackingly funny lines, with my personal favourite possibly being (paraphrased) "I wanted it more than anything I had ever wanted in my whole life… INCLUDING enlightenment". For anyone wishing to know what "it" is and the context in which this line is made so funny – I suggest a trip to Oxford's very own Burton Taylor. I am pretty sure you'll laugh a good deal, and you may just receive some illumination too.

Paul T (Unverified), 28/08/07

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