Sexuality, subjectivity and the female gaze: Looking For Giants comes to London.
Following a successful season performing at Edinburgh Fringe Festival’s Underbelly, theatre company That What’s Wild will bring Cesca Echlin’s debut comedy-drama Looking For Giants to The King’s Head in 2025. A one-woman show, Looking For Giants blends theatre and comedy with lyrical language and storytelling to tackle taboo topics and stereotypes still seen today in discussions about women and sexuality. The show looks to empower women in a society still dictated by the male gaze through humour, authenticity, and subjective honesty.
A monologue in three parts, Looking For Giants follows a nameless woman, portrayed by Abby McCann, reminiscing on her relationships with three different men during her early adulthood: a university tutor, a man on a dating app, and a fellow student at her school. Each man’s narrative becomes a character in the story, holding up a mirror to various stages of the protagonist’s life so far. Blurring the boundaries between self and other, Echlin’s script explores the subjectivity of memory, and the complexity of distinguishing between fantasy and reality.
Looking For Giants is not afraid to confront the ways that women can perpetuate gendered stereotypes, using scenes that deal directly with sex, sexting and pornography that may shock or surprise the audience. In doing so, it aims to reduce the stigma around female sexuality, diversifying how it is staged by confronting its nuances.
Writer and director Cesca Echlin comments, This semi-autobiographical show about meaningful encounters with men explores women’s contradictory relationship with the male gaze. The most important thing to us is that people see themselves in this show, that they find it relatable and that it sheds light on experiences they’ve struggled to understand fully.
Writer/Director - Cesca Echlin (she/her); Performer/Dramaturg - Abby McCann (she/her); Producer - That What’s Wild theatre company.
Listings
Looking For Giants: Tuesday 14th January – Sunday 26th January 2025
King’s Head Theatre, 116 Upper Street, London, N1 1QN
Running time: 65 minutes
Tickets: £22 / £25: Looking for Giants | What's On | King's Head Theatre
Further Information: Looking for Giants | What's On | King's Head Theatre