Penis Envy

In this critically acclaimed solo-show, monologist, writer, and English teacher Becky Bondurant threads her coming-of-age narrative through a Freudian needle, weaving from eating disorders and female orgasms to circumcision and breastfeeding against a backdrop of political crisis.

Penis Envy is the culmination of more than three years of study under New York City’s master monologist Mike Daisey who has described Becky as "a cross between Sylvia Plath and Mary Katherine Gallagher." Informed by her experiences as a parent, a teacher, a queer, a student of literature, and a former Catholic, Becky’s stories unravel extemporaneously to undress taboo topics like sex, age, weight, othering, power, ritual, and death in a style that is raunchy, irreverent, and sharply philosophical.

The 46 paintings that appear as the backdrop of Penis Envy were created in a collaboration between Becky and her two children, ages 7 and 9, over the course of three weeks leading up to the show’s premiere at the Capital Fringe Festival 2024 in Washington, D.C.

The show was named "Best of Fringe" by DC Theater Arts in 2024 and praised by critics such as Chris Klimek who wrote in The Washington Post, “I loved ‘Penis Envy,’” and described the show as “vulnerable and true to her, funny and inviting.” Penis Envy ran as part of the 2024 Philadelphia Fringe Festival and was described in The Broad Street Review as “the best kind of monologue show: finely crafted and intimately inhabited... funny, bold, poignant, sad, and transformative.”

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This production is a part of Frigid NY’s Gotham Storytelling Festival.