Caustic satire takes aim at useless incels

By Andrew Fuhrmann August 1, 2021 â€" 6.00pm

THEATRE
Hydra ★★½
Northcote Town Hall Arts Centre, until August 3

Global anxieties about desperate and dateless males who fill the internet with misogynistic ravings are only the most recent manifestation of an age-old conviction that alienated young men are a threat to society.

Hydra puts us in a dry future world.Credit:Darren Gill

Hydra, a caustic little two-hander written by Rachel Perks and directed by Bridget Balodis, offers a solution: encourage men to kill themselves, then repopulate using artificial insemination.

The play is set in the not-too-distant future. Water is scarce and unemployment is rife. Society teeters on the brink. Euthanasia clinics are a popular alternative.

Anita (Sapidah Kian) is a consultant at one of these clinics. Almost all of her clients, we are told, are young, white, straight men. Her job is to convince them to go through with the procedure.

In walks Bowen (Casey Filips). He’s lazy, selfish and not too bright. He’s a bully and, of course, a manspreader. His only interest is video games, and now they’re illegal so, naturally, he’s thinking about suicide.

The 75-minute show grinds towards its inexorable conclusion as Bowen is praised for his heroism, has second thoughts, and eventually does submit. After all, he reasons, it beats looking for work.

Kahn plays up the villainous aspects of Anita’s character with melodramatic sidelong glances and sinister mood changes as she entangles her victim in his self-loathing.

Filips staggers through his part, bellowing like a stunned bull: a sacrifice, a graceless animal who doesn’t understand the significance of death.

Behind all this is the legend of Hydra, the many-headed monster of Ancient Greek mythology, a type of the monstrous feminine. The play invites us to speculate on the kind of quiet life Hydra might have wanted for herself, dreaming of a world without heroes.

Hydra is a gothic miniature that works both as a grim fantasy and as a caustic satire. It can also be understood as part of a culture that mocks and calls out misogynistic content online and in the media.

The surreal grievances of those futureless and depressed young men who call themselves incels are shot through with desires for self-harm. Hydra seems to ask: well, what are you waiting for?

If you or anyone you know needs support, call Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800, Lifeline on 131 114, or Beyond Blue’s coronavirus mental wellbeing support service on 1800 512 348.

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