Sentimental Reason is a truly astonishing vision of perverse human-equine relations that leaves Peter Shaffer’s Equus in the dust. Fast, loud, sexy, funny, dangerous and disturbing: I doubt I’ll see a more powerful 25 minutes of theatre all year.
– Colin Rose, in The Sun-Herald, 22-07-2001 Form
In the summer of ’99 a newspaper article described a man who stole a horse from its field, bound its legs, stripped off his clothes and had sex with it in broad daylight. He was caught in the act by two passing police as he was clearly in view from an adjoining road. The police did not know what to charge him with.
TODAY’S BEST
Suspended bodies and frisky narratives (Lee Wilson and Mirabelle Wouters’ Sentimental Reason, based on a man stealing a horse in order to have sex with it, is the show’s highlight) combine with original and unconventional choreography.
– Lenny Ann Low, in The Sydney Morning Herald, 29-07-2001
concept/choreography/
performance
Lee Wilson
Mirabelle Wouters
lighting design
Geert Peymen
costume design
Zoe Mahony
music
Booorse (Rose Turtle & Boo Chapple)
Flipper
outside eye
Kate Champion
The most audacious, Sentimental Reason, is a genuinely disturbing tale of foreplay and liaisons between a woman and a horse (and what a gorgeous horse he is as he pisses loudly and slowly into the front row of the audience) and lolls about, patiently watching us walk in. The use of straps hung from the ceiling, which Lee Wilson bridles, fights and reigns himself in, adds hellfireclub cred and Mirabelle Wouters, decked out in tartan tucked up into her knickers, and later naked astride her bareback plaything, is funny and kinky at the same time.
– Kirsten Krauth, Realtime, 13-08-2001
Full show
Tour Dates
B-Sharp, 4 On The Floor, Belvoir St. Theatre, Sydney,
19 July – 5 August 2001.
KC nOna, Mechelen, Belgium,
2-3 May 2002
Anti-Static, Performance Space, Sydney,
25-28 September 2002
Mobile States, PICA, Perth,
08-10 October 2002
Sentimental Reason was commissioned by Legs on the Wall for their 4 On The Floor Season at Belvoir Street Theatre.
