Is Marisa Garreffa's show Cured Freudian or feminist?

Performance art almost always seems to contain two main ingredients: an anti-capitalist subtext, and an intention to confront or disturb the audience somehow. This is one of the main reasons I've just never been able to get into it.

Firstly, I don't think capitalism is all that bad. Sure, it's far from perfect, but it sure as hell beats the alternative. Also, I find the confrontational stuff a bit obnoxious, and often boring. Call me old fashioned, but I find entertainment a lot more enjoyable.

This one-woman show Cured by Marisa Garreffa, which is showing at the Blue Room, seems to tick both those boxes. The writer-performer butchers actual pig carcasses during her show satirizing the funeral industry. So it does sound like pretty traditional -- dare I say conservative -- performance art fare. Still, it does seem like quite an intriguing piece.

But what I find more intriguing is the fact that Ms Garreffa, daughter of a well known local butcher, has chosen to feature the cutting up of carcasses on stage. What's her motivation? Is she trying to get back at him or please him? Perhaps a bit of both? It all seems pretty Freudian to me ...

Or maybe that's the wrong way to look at it. It could be that she's a Marxist feminist and she's saying: "Daddy, this is nothing personal. I just despise your politics. You're such a sexist pig!"