RE : Jessi

Review by: Paul Towers, 25/9/19

RE : Jessi by  Jessi Wilson

Upstairs @ The Western, 25 September 2019

“should old wounds be reopened?”

Like most men I have little idea what goes on inside the emotional heart of the average woman. RE : Jessi is, I suppose, trying to go some way to educate us mere males. 

With just a sofa, a table and a small desk Jessi Wilson pulls numbers out of a hat, each number pertaining to one of the 37 sexual conquests she has had over the last 15 years.  This is not a litany of sexual adventures, more a randomly ordered set of emotional forays; some no more than one night stands, others long standing affairs. Some encounters warrant no more than a single line, others have involved back stories.

Along the way we find funny moments, poignant tales and downright anger inducing misogyny.

Jessi wrote this show by contacting all 37 of her past ‘lovers’ and asking them for their memories. Some didn’t even reply, hence the one line descriptions of their involvement.

This is very much a woman’s emotional journey and feels like someone sitting down with her best friend and a bottle of Prosecco to put her love life to rights.

Jessi Wilson has that warm Dawn French feel about her.

The entire evening (all 1 hour 40 minutes of it) was a series of little portraits of emotion referring to each of the 37. The end was Jessi reflecting on whether all this stirring up of sleeping dogs was worth the emotional pain; should old wounds be reopened?

Upstairs at The Western http://upstairsatthewestern.com/
First published on Western Gazette