Review: 'hunger' by Joanna Ward
It’s a pretty rare experience to be able to go to an opera knowing that you’re going to be watching something that is (a) feminist and (b) completely new; Joanna Ward’s hunger, which will be performed at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe, promises to tick both of these boxes. Hunger illustrates an artist’s (Anna-Luise Wagner) attempt to ‘strive for aesthetic beauty every day in her performance of [her] domestic life’ after her decision to have children and partially renounce her successful artistic career. Its strong focus on feminist issues, including the conflict between family and career goals, and the limiting categorisations placed upon ‘women artists’, allow hunger to offer a particularly relevant and compelling perspective on contemporary issues faced by women in the arts. The narrative, a collaborative e ffort between Ward and Ryan Hay, provides a perceptive and engaging insight into these issues; rather than offering a black-and-white view, their characterisation allows for
