A sweaty show with songs asking: what does it mean to feel strong?
Two confrontation-avoidant gentle beings finally decide to live out their 1990s TV fantasies and pump iron, strap on armour, and learn how to fight.
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| Photo by Rui Henriques |
Mixing interviews with children, teens, and elders, with their own personal stories and medieval gymcore beats they made up, She Goat set forth on a quest to get strong, stay strong and find out what “strong” even means. In search of assertiveness! In search of a six-pack! Armed with flute, autoharp, and a lot of cottage cheese… This is IRON FANTASY.
Written and performed by She Goat (Shamira Turner and Eugénie Pastor).
We sat down with Shamira and Eugénie to learn more about the show.
What can you tell us about IRON FANTASY?
IRON FANTASY is theatre show about two people on a quest to feel strong. And on that journey, we can’t escape the question of why they don’t feel strong to begin with. It’s mash up of harmony singing, personal experience, and us getting puffed out doing training sequences like you might find in a 90s film where the hero is getting stronger - but in this case the heroes feel awkward in their bodies and are approaching middle age. Plus, we made armour out of kitchenware and Eugénie downs a raw egg on stage.
IRON FANTASY is theatre show about two people on a quest to feel strong. And on that journey, we can’t escape the question of why they don’t feel strong to begin with. It’s mash up of harmony singing, personal experience, and us getting puffed out doing training sequences like you might find in a 90s film where the hero is getting stronger - but in this case the heroes feel awkward in their bodies and are approaching middle age. Plus, we made armour out of kitchenware and Eugénie downs a raw egg on stage.
Can you tell us about the inspiration behind IRON FANTASY?
So, I (Shamira) got introduced to this online martial movement class in the pandemic – when lots of people were trying to do exercise over zoom or YouTube. The class involved learning how to punch and kick, alone in my living room, with a bunch of other people in little screens on my laptop also learning how to throw fight moves on their own too. It was weird to recognise the resistance and self-consciousness I felt about these shapes: who am I to be doing this? But moving my body in these new ways, I had a feeling it could shift how I understood myself in the world… Eugénie and I have undertaken a lot of new activities together – for our first show we studied Greco Roman wrestling – but we are both very uncomfortable with confrontation and we feel threat in situations keenly. Our instinct or learned behaviour was ‘flight’ or ‘fawn’, not ‘fight’. We started wondering: What does it mean to grow up and grow older shaped by the understanding that you are ‘less’ physically strong? Who typically gets to be labelled ‘strong’? And how might we be able to reimagine that for ourselves?
So, I (Shamira) got introduced to this online martial movement class in the pandemic – when lots of people were trying to do exercise over zoom or YouTube. The class involved learning how to punch and kick, alone in my living room, with a bunch of other people in little screens on my laptop also learning how to throw fight moves on their own too. It was weird to recognise the resistance and self-consciousness I felt about these shapes: who am I to be doing this? But moving my body in these new ways, I had a feeling it could shift how I understood myself in the world… Eugénie and I have undertaken a lot of new activities together – for our first show we studied Greco Roman wrestling – but we are both very uncomfortable with confrontation and we feel threat in situations keenly. Our instinct or learned behaviour was ‘flight’ or ‘fawn’, not ‘fight’. We started wondering: What does it mean to grow up and grow older shaped by the understanding that you are ‘less’ physically strong? Who typically gets to be labelled ‘strong’? And how might we be able to reimagine that for ourselves?
Where did your working relationship begin and how has it evolved, developing IRON FANTASY?
We met making a new show with Little Bulb Theatre back in 2009 – it’s a company we continue to make and perform shows with and they are basically our theatre siblings. Performing onstage together, however, something soon became clear, and then unavoidable… people kept getting the two of us mixed up. Or thought there was just one of us – somehow we were the same person? Asked if we sisters or twins? Even though I don’t have a French accent, people thought I was Eugénie more often than they thought I was myself. It was time to take action. We decided to lean into our situation and make a show about being doppelgängers, exploring all kinds of dangerous doubling and what it means to be mistaken for someone else. She Goat’s first show was born – DoppelDänger – full of new songs and strange covers (like a Baroque harmony version of Tatu’s All The Things She Said and a French language version of Spice Girls’ Two Become One). Our shows have continued to be rooted in our personal experience and going on a journey together to figure something out, and all She Goat shows have music woven in – a like a gig mixed with a theatre show. IRON FANTASY might be our most ambitious yet, and we’ve really worked to push each other out of our comfort zone to tell this story.
We met making a new show with Little Bulb Theatre back in 2009 – it’s a company we continue to make and perform shows with and they are basically our theatre siblings. Performing onstage together, however, something soon became clear, and then unavoidable… people kept getting the two of us mixed up. Or thought there was just one of us – somehow we were the same person? Asked if we sisters or twins? Even though I don’t have a French accent, people thought I was Eugénie more often than they thought I was myself. It was time to take action. We decided to lean into our situation and make a show about being doppelgängers, exploring all kinds of dangerous doubling and what it means to be mistaken for someone else. She Goat’s first show was born – DoppelDänger – full of new songs and strange covers (like a Baroque harmony version of Tatu’s All The Things She Said and a French language version of Spice Girls’ Two Become One). Our shows have continued to be rooted in our personal experience and going on a journey together to figure something out, and all She Goat shows have music woven in – a like a gig mixed with a theatre show. IRON FANTASY might be our most ambitious yet, and we’ve really worked to push each other out of our comfort zone to tell this story.
The mix of medieval gymcore beats and personal narratives sounds unique. How did that come together?
We were inspired by Xena Warrior Princess, of course! – a TV show that Shamira grew up watching and is a kind of fantasy of roaming around an ancient landscape being strong women with a horse saving villagers/humankind. Sonically, we also wanted to tap into that pop soundtrack of being at the gym learning to lift weights. So, we explored ways to blend those textures. The show is a mix of us trying to reach this fantasy of iron strength with montages and songs, and to tell this story truthfully, we can’t escape our personal narratives.
We were inspired by Xena Warrior Princess, of course! – a TV show that Shamira grew up watching and is a kind of fantasy of roaming around an ancient landscape being strong women with a horse saving villagers/humankind. Sonically, we also wanted to tap into that pop soundtrack of being at the gym learning to lift weights. So, we explored ways to blend those textures. The show is a mix of us trying to reach this fantasy of iron strength with montages and songs, and to tell this story truthfully, we can’t escape our personal narratives.
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| Photo by Rui Henriques. |
How did you build the sound of the show?
We wanted the show to carry a mixture of ancient-sounding woodwind and strings, plus those irresistible beats that get your heart pumping, and to use certain existing bangers (pop songs) to capture 90s movies moments and the kind of 00s pop music we grew up with. So we also explored making medieval-ish harmonies of gym anthems. And for original compositions, we composed on a mix of autoharp, flute, recorder, and Ableton Live using this device called Push 2 with squares that light up, which means we can trigger and play all our electronic music and the pre-recorded song live on stage. We also kind of chose this collection of instruments because they’re the lightest we have… we didn’t want to be heaving around the piano accordion or bass amp - which I realise is a slightly ironic choice in a show about trying to get stronger!
We wanted the show to carry a mixture of ancient-sounding woodwind and strings, plus those irresistible beats that get your heart pumping, and to use certain existing bangers (pop songs) to capture 90s movies moments and the kind of 00s pop music we grew up with. So we also explored making medieval-ish harmonies of gym anthems. And for original compositions, we composed on a mix of autoharp, flute, recorder, and Ableton Live using this device called Push 2 with squares that light up, which means we can trigger and play all our electronic music and the pre-recorded song live on stage. We also kind of chose this collection of instruments because they’re the lightest we have… we didn’t want to be heaving around the piano accordion or bass amp - which I realise is a slightly ironic choice in a show about trying to get stronger!
How do you mentally and physically prepare for a performance?
For She Goat shows, Eugénie and I are running around juggling jobs – as we’re a self-producing company, they’re always lots of emails and admin to sort, we’re the writers, directors, performers, and we sound tech the show, so there’s often not much time for warming up – and we do love a good warm up! But I think the key thing is that whatever we’re doing (carrying in the set, going over lighting cues, tuning up) we’re doing it together. A She Goat show is all about finishing each other’s sentences and having each other’s backs, and this is a brand new show that will be incredibly fresh for us – so we’ll need to be together for a bit before we meet the audience, probably running some lines (that we will have inevitably just rewritten) and singing some harmonies.
For She Goat shows, Eugénie and I are running around juggling jobs – as we’re a self-producing company, they’re always lots of emails and admin to sort, we’re the writers, directors, performers, and we sound tech the show, so there’s often not much time for warming up – and we do love a good warm up! But I think the key thing is that whatever we’re doing (carrying in the set, going over lighting cues, tuning up) we’re doing it together. A She Goat show is all about finishing each other’s sentences and having each other’s backs, and this is a brand new show that will be incredibly fresh for us – so we’ll need to be together for a bit before we meet the audience, probably running some lines (that we will have inevitably just rewritten) and singing some harmonies.
What was the first piece of theatre you remember having a big impact on your career?
This wasn’t the first show for us individually, but as a duo, I can remember a show we both saw together and lit us up: Trilogy by Nic Green at the Barbican. I remember a blending of academic inquiry and a sort of personal incantation, a live phone call with one of their mums, and brave beautiful communal nudity. It was a show that feels like a movement.
This wasn’t the first show for us individually, but as a duo, I can remember a show we both saw together and lit us up: Trilogy by Nic Green at the Barbican. I remember a blending of academic inquiry and a sort of personal incantation, a live phone call with one of their mums, and brave beautiful communal nudity. It was a show that feels like a movement.
What keeps you inspired?
We run a theatre club for older women in South London, She Goat Theatre Club, and it’s an amazing group of people from all walks of life and different experiences, coming together and deciding to try new things – invent a story together, improvise, get out of their comfort zone, and fall apart laughing because the focus game is actually really intense. It’s a gift to be in a room where you can be honest, vulnerable, and silly with ‘strangers’ and it’s an inspiration for us to get to know women who are older than us and have discovered all these passions later in life – for writing, caring for bees, Latin Dancing, the list goes on.
We run a theatre club for older women in South London, She Goat Theatre Club, and it’s an amazing group of people from all walks of life and different experiences, coming together and deciding to try new things – invent a story together, improvise, get out of their comfort zone, and fall apart laughing because the focus game is actually really intense. It’s a gift to be in a room where you can be honest, vulnerable, and silly with ‘strangers’ and it’s an inspiration for us to get to know women who are older than us and have discovered all these passions later in life – for writing, caring for bees, Latin Dancing, the list goes on.
What do you hope audiences take away from this performance?
If you come along to see Iron Fantasy, we hope you’ll feel curious to have some chats with each other about your own relationship to strength! We hope the show will prompt you to think differently about ‘what it means to be strong’ and even share your own stories together with pals, grandparents, any teenagers in your life, who knows! The show is honest and personal in places, and we can’t help making something a least a bit weird, but ultimately, we wanted to make something uplifting.
If you come along to see Iron Fantasy, we hope you’ll feel curious to have some chats with each other about your own relationship to strength! We hope the show will prompt you to think differently about ‘what it means to be strong’ and even share your own stories together with pals, grandparents, any teenagers in your life, who knows! The show is honest and personal in places, and we can’t help making something a least a bit weird, but ultimately, we wanted to make something uplifting.
IRON FANTASY runs at Soho Theatre from Tuesday 10th until Saturday 21st March 2026. Tickets are available from https://sohotheatre.com/events/iron-fantasy/
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| Photo by Rui Henriques |
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