Via the Make Shift project, theatre companies Tin Box and Little Earthquake (with thanks to Point Blank) have taken charge of the prime-site empty shop at no.99 New Street, Birmingham, filling it with a dizzying programme of eye-catching, day-long performances/installations/artworks over the course of the last three weeks.

Later today is the turn of Kindle Theatre and myself. The Furies will use the shopfront as the location for the attempted filming of a pop video for the band’s dystopian anthem, “Are You Angry Yet?”. It looks like it will get messy, however. We’re under strict instructions to protect the street innocents against unnecessary exposure to flesh, but deviant Fury Bobbi-Rage sees nought but Red when a rule-book is brandished. She refuses to stay in her cage. With her unsettling brand of anarcho-feminism she makes provokation by requesting public consultation on her sous-dressage. [link to images]

Dave the Roadie thinks it might be a cheap stunt. He’s been there and done some, yes, but he didn’t endure years of ideological reconstruction in the late 80’s in order to rubberstamp mere flauntage. We’re not filming “Wet T-shirt nite” here; the soundtrack is “Are You Angry Yet?”. It’s asking questions/ pushing the awkward buttons. Girl Power has skewed the feminist landscape and now contemporary poster girls are highly sexualised in appearance. Is this supposed to empower them? Meanwhile PussyRiot are in jail for creating an articulate resistance to what they see as an unjust and corrupt regime of governance. And Femen continue to rattle the Ukrainian authorities with topless protests which court the world’s social media, highlight anti-corruption women’s rights issues in their home country.