Advertisement

Culture Theatre

The Silicone Diaries

THE SILICONE DIARIES by Nina Arsenault (Buddies in Bad Times). To November 22. See listing. Rating: NNN


To become the woman she is today, local writer/performer Nina Arsenault underwent 60 surgeries – some of them under pretty sketchy circumstances. In her autobiographical solo show, based on a series of columns she wrote for Fab, she addresses why she went to such extremes.[rssbreak]

Laying out the origins of her obsession with body modification, Arsenault narrates scenes from her trailer park boyhood, where mannequins and glamour photos introduced an image of idealized beauty.

After a move to Toronto, her stories chronicle jobs in the sex industry to pay for operations and later escapades with other transsexuals who push the plastic surgery envelope, deleterious side-effects be damned. One gruesome episode in which Arsenault gets black-market silicone injections in a seedy motel room could be lifted from a heroin memoir.

But it isn’t all about dangerous situations. A yarn about getting hit on by rock star Tommy Lee is particularly funny, especially given Lee’s online boasting about how many women he’s slept with (and considering how close Arsenault gets, I’ll bet Tommy’s list includes more than one sneaky T-girl).

The most powerful part of the performance comes toward the end, when Arsenault finally grapples with aging and struggles to control her addiction to silicone.

Despite a habit of stumbling over words in conversational sections, she’s captivating and spot-on during the most emotional moments. Director Brendan Healy (Buddies’ new artistic director) has Arsenault pause and patiently strike a pose in between sections, an effective choice that emulates moments spent in front of the mirror, where the impulse to improve one’s body is most powerful.

Advertisement

Exclusive content and events straight to your inbox

Subscribe to our Newsletter

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

By signing up, I agree to receive emails from Now Toronto and to the Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.

Recently Posted