Women of an uncertain age

“We haven’t all ended up in twin sets and pearls, staying at home watching telly!” said Maggie Bourgein, one half of local duo Woman of an Uncertain Age, a witty and inventive comedy coming to Exeter Ignite Festival in July.

Along with Flip Webster, the two-some, both over a certain age of 50, combine hilarious sketches and monologues (and a dash of street dance!) to create a unique, brilliantly executed and well-oiled comedy machine.

Flip, an esteemed actress who has worked in all media, notably Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and most recently with Sir Kenneth Branagh in the acclaimed Swedish crime drama Wallander, and Maggie, who has worked extensively in theatre including productions of Oh Calcutta! and Who goes Bare, decided to create the show after a series of discussions about collaborating on a serious feature short film project that ended in comedic improvisation.

“As Maggie and I have a similar sense of humour, we decided to create some comedy sketches and began to develop some of the characters you see in the show,” added Flip. The sketches vary from image obsessed Fee and Mags who are desperately clinging on to their youth, Kylie, a young at heart elderly lady and a parody of television detectives who are too preoccupied with their private lives to solve the crime at hand!

The show itself was produced by the double act to present woman of their age in a way true to life, rather than the bored stress beaten housewives or platinum blonde kept ladies often seen in the media. “We feel women are misrepresented in popular culture and also that there are no woman of our age doing what we do, so we are quite unique in that respect,” said Maggie. “We wanted to create the kind of comedy we would like to see,” added Flip.

Despite the title, Woman of an Uncertain Age is in no way a feminist piece and can be enjoyed by both sexes and a range of ages. “Some people think that this is an anti-men show, and we don’t have any anti-men sketches in the show at all. People seem to think that because we’ve got women in the title, that our show is only for women,” said Flip.

She added: “At a scratch of our show last November at the Bikeshed Theatre, Exeter, we performed in front of a mixed audience, ranging from 19 year old students to people in their eighties.

Some of the male students had come up to us after the performance to tell us that they thought we were the best thing on that particular night and they were surprised to enjoy the show.”

Hilarious and veering close to the inappropriate, Woman of an Uncertain Age is a must see at this year’s Ignite Festival.

Woman of an Uncertain Age will be performing at The Bikeshed Theatre on July 2,3 and 7, at 6pm. Ticket prices £5. Box office 01392 434169 www.bikeshedtheatre.co.uk.