Ladies – would you rather be alone in the forest with a man or a bear? This was the question that consumed the Internet in 2024. Offended gentlemen – take your complaints to Disney. Fairytales and folklore have made parallels between man and beast for centuries to symbolise female anxieties about relationships with men. Clever Priya Toberman & Sasha Ivanova have realised this connection and written a modern fairy tale that peels back the metaphors to the core worry; can women trust men?
Bear is part of the University of Oxford Student Season: Trinity Term 2025. I was excited to see another student-written play at the Burton Taylor Studio after watching future classic The Sun King last year. Burton Taylor was the perfect venue for Bear. Its intimate setting, along with the later starting time, creates the image of a fairy tale being told by the fireside, an ancient and inevitable ritual unfolding before the powerless audience’s eyes. One act of onstage violence made the woman sitting next to me visibly flinch and turn away.
A Girl – played by Eloise Wills – goes on a camping trip. Away from her friends, she encounters a bear and is saved by a Man, played by Peter Hardisty. He takes Girl to his log cabin, promising safety…and failing to deliver.
Don’t be fooled by the premise; this isn’t a gratuitous, exploitative horror. Man’s character is pitched, to quote Goldilocks, ‘just right’. Peter builds on Toberman & Ivanova’s dialogue to create a socially awkward, ‘nice guy’ demeanour, red flags a flash of handkerchief rather than waved loud and proud…at first. His relatable, faux-respectful persona prevents the men in the audience from distancing themselves from Man’s behaviour.
Some of the exposition and the methods used to reveal plot points could be a bit stilted. With a runtime of less than an hour, Bear must work fast to introduce us to its setting and characters, and resolve its plot. This leads to some heavy-handed allusions and unrealistic speech, but not enough to take me completely out of the action.
Where Bear’s dialogue shines is when it explores the themes of female safety. Eloise delivers a brilliant opening monologue that perfectly articulates why women are ‘choosing the bear’. Girl’s greatest fear is humans; they’re “smarter, crueller” and less predictable than animals. Man later delivers on these fears.
Another moment of dialogue made me think differently about the ‘man vs bear’ debate. When Man accuses Girl of not trusting him, she points out her lack of choice in the matter. Either she let the bear attack her, or she went along with Man, whether she felt safe around him or not.
As much as we women joke about ‘choosing the bear’, we know deep down we have no true, safe choice at all. The ‘man vs bear’ question is really a bleak reminder of how unsafe the world can be for women. Interestingly, Bear offers an alternative answer; head over to Burton Taylor Studio to find out.