Meat Cute: smart, preach-free vegan activism

Cage at The Vaults, Waterloo

★★★★
11th March 2023

Bibi Lucille’s magnetic performance as a vegan activist packs important climate messaging into big belly laughs.

Lena is a twenty-something party animal and passionate vegan who is on a mission to convert her Tinder dates to a plant-based lifestyle. The energetic opening scene, in which she bursts onto the stage and twerks to Megan Thee Stallion, brings the first of many laughs as we follow Lena’s dating exploits and unique form of activism. 

Bibi Lucille demonstrates phenomenal versatility as she portrays 10 different characters and effortlessly incorporates props and costume changes. The subject matter of her one-woman show could easily tip into preachiness, yet its farcical nature ensures the tone remains light and that everyone, including Lena, is mocked. One misjudged match with a French animal hunter goes awry, for example, making explicit Lena’s naivety in thinking she can single-handedly convert every man she meets. 

But there’s something else at play, too. Lucille explores the ways in which women must fight to get their voices heard in a male-dominated world. Lena is charismatic and sexually confident, and we’re led to believe she’s the predator, seeking out her prey for her covert operation. However, we worry for Lena’s safety as she goes about her mission, on one occasion meeting the unknown, aforementioned Frenchman in his house. She often uses her sexuality to persuade her conquests to her point of view, leading to shallow victories that throw her predator status into question. 

The show’s titular “meat” therefore gains an extra meaning, representing female objectification in a world still struggling to accept that a woman can be both sexual and worthy of a voice. Lena’s decision to target men on a one-to-one basis in the first place implies a frustration at not having been listened to on a wider scale, and there’s a sense of attempting to dismantle the patriarchy, symbolised by macho, meat-eating men, from the inside. 

This thought-provoking and thoroughly entertaining show cleverly conveys the meat industry’s environmental impacts through a feminist lens, without being judgmental or accusatory. Like Lena with her Tinder dates, it will reel you in and leave you unexpectedly enlightened.