Created by Martha Pailing, Recipient of Keep It Fringe Fund

Review by Orly Benn

Summerhall – Former Women’s Locker Room

In a show whose title is characteristically angry and impulsive, Martha Pailing’s Chat Shit Get Hit is remarkably sensitive, thoughtful, funny, and clever. Beginning with a very memorable impression of her parents’ dog, Huwie, Chat Shit Get Hit begins and ends with a desire to both embody and herald unapologetic female anger after having to move home post-break-up as a working-class creative. Indeed, it succeeds triumphantly in its efforts. Pailing, guided by director Ursula Martinez, beautifully toes the line between earnest, human storytelling and melodic, almost Shakespearean metricism in her speech. She navigates her words with meticulous control and “ruthless efficiency”, whilst also remaining relentlessly charming and genuine throughout the motions of her angry manifesto.

Chat Shit Get Hit masterfully avoids the shortcomings of many of its contemporaries that steer their narratives around the not-so-interesting break-up, rather than the much-more-interesting person experiencing it. The show remains unequivocally about her, the anger she harbours at the world that has forced her back into the same job she had at 15, and the universal, daily experiences of anger that drive all women/non-binary patrons in the audience. In a particularly thoughtful moment, Pailing invites us to join in her anger by contributing our own grievances on cards that she later reads out with building anger and unwavering sincerity. As she reads, the audience is ushered through peaks and valleys that encompass the angers of her mostly female and non-binary audience. Indeed, her mostly female and non-binary audience reveals itself when all of the cards exist on a spectrum between domestic bitterness to anger at the fear of walking home alone at night.

Even though this is certainly a show written for this audience, I can’t help but feel it is a shame that its patrons are almost exclusively such. That said, maybe that’s better in a reality where rare appearances from male patrons lead to comments such as “we couldn’t take your anger seriously because you’re too pretty” (true story). Pailing’s rage is totally glorious, completely justified, and undeniably necessary. We would all benefit from listening to her more, and then sending our brothers, fathers and sons to listen to her again.

---