The Ruby Dolls: Fabulous Creatures

One of the retorts most regularly flung at feminism is that it lacks a sense of humour. Can’t you take a joke? It was just a bit of banter. The Ruby Dolls can definitely take a joke, and they can tell a pretty mean one too. But if there’s going to be humour, it will be on their terms.

Fabulous Creatures is the Ruby Dolls’ fierce, funny and tuneful answer to the misogyny that continues to seep into all corners of modern culture. Their wacky cabaret musical appropriates and subverts multiple narratives, upturning everything from Jane Austen to fairytales to TV talent contests. All of a sudden, Fanny from Mansfield Park is a half-goat celebrity wannabe, mentored by Mary Poppins and forced to perform in front of millions to win Edmund’s hand in marriage.

The wit is as sharp as it is surreal, attacking an impressively wide range of targets. The conflicting expectations heaped upon women, the pressures of social media and the sexualisation of female pop stars all take heavy blows, but the Ruby Dolls’ weapon of choice is ridicule rather than outright rage. Jolted out of context, so much of this everyday sexism becomes laughably ludicrous, while the central goat gag is a metaphor that just keeps on giving.

In the end, the Ruby Dolls’ invention doesn’t quite match their ambition and the momentum begins to flag in the final third. But it’s hard not to cheer for a show that laughs so ferociously in the face of misogyny.