By Kath Tucker
An unfortunately short season of the play Blind Justice and the Nipple of Mercy, at the Bay Street Theatre, was one of features of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.
A thought-provoking, moving, and at times very funny production, this play featured three women artists portraying a variety of issues and debates of concern to lesbians. The first half of the play tells the story of Justice, whose mother was a freedom fighter. Justice — of course — is blind. Mercy tells her own story — that of a lesbian, unable to communicate with her mother any of her feelings about her sexuality.
The two meet and form a relationship, escaping to the city in an attempt to create a life for themselves. The city they find is corrupt, violent and alienating. Justice and Mercy decide to act in their own separate ways in an attempt to sort the mess out — Justice in an authoritarian, judgmental way; Mercy as a compassionate giver.
The play doesn't attempt to offer complete solutions to the issues raised, but does present these two alternatives as realistic perspectives on achieving some measure of change. Both, however, are thwarted. Mercy, while dispensing charity and compassion, is raped and murdered. Her death causes Justice to become even more judgmental; Mercy's doctrine that "understanding means forgiving" provides no succour amidst the reality of city life. Justice becomes an unquestioning juror, judge and executioner of punishment.
The second half of the play became somewhat confused as a whole range of issues relating to a critique of city life, corruption, imperialism, racism and sexism were presented, yet without being able to be dealt with realistically within the framework of the play itself. The final scene represents the futility even of Justice's blind search for some sense of fairness, when she is confronted with the dilemma of a woman demanding her right to an abortion, even though the reason is that she is carrying a female foetus and her husband wants a son.
It is a pity that the confusion within the feminist movement has reached such a level that the basic question of a woman's right to choose becomes questioned in this instance. Justice's plea that in this, of all cases, she doesn't know the answer is perhaps indicative of the extent to which once basic premises of women's liberation are being eroded on an ideological level.
The play raised some important questions. The humour which the corruption of the city, and Mercy's attempts to communicate with her mother were dealt with are testimony to the positive side of this form of social critique, as well as its accessibility. Let's hope for another performance of it soon.