Did you know that “wench” has been removed from the game Wordle, along with other apparently offensive five-letter words? Jessica Fostekew is a huge Wordle fan, one of a diminishing number, she worries. When she named her show, she didn’t consider that “wench” was anything other than “an excellently silly word for a fun old slag” – the perfect title for a show about her re-entry into the dating pool.
Fostekew’s life has changed a lot since her last show, Hench, which saw her nominated for the 2019 Edinburgh Comedy Award for its energetic and poignant exploration of strength, body image and childbirth. In the intervening years, Fostekew has split with the father of her child, discovered that she’s not straight after all, and got engaged to her girlfriend. She’s “weirder… older… and gayer” than she was pre-pandemic, she tells us.
One of my favourite things about Fostekew’s work is her talent for physical performance, building on jokes with well-timed mimes and precise facial expressions. This provides some of the biggest laughs in Wench, as she treats us to her attempt at a sincerely sexy dance, a haunting impression of a cat she suspects is homophobic, and an excruciating re-enactment of a waxing session.
“What are we doing with our pubes?” she asks the audience at the top of the show. Fostekew is a veteran of The Guilty Feminist podcast – and her interest in the complexities and conflicts of living as a feminist is also present here: along with asking what our pubic hair says about us, she explores settling on a label to define her sexuality, and the reclamation of the word “bimbo”.
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There’s a thought-provoking section on botox and the pressure for women to look younger, as Fostekew discusses how many of our favourite actors and comedians have been filling their faces since their 20s. Is there an irony that those whose careers rely on conveying emotion feel they need to freeze their faces? And will she soon be the lone “furry raisin” surrounded by “deep-voiced babies”, she wonders.
Fostekew’s shows are always high-energy, filled with positivity but also righteous anger. Much like her fellow comedian Bridget Christie, Fostekew skilfully escalates her belligerence to great comic effect. A local mayoral candidate where she lives in Lewisham receives the brunt of her ire here – provoked by a homophobic campaign leaflet posted through Fostekew’s letterbox. It caused a “visceral” reaction, she says, as she realised she was experiencing homophobia for the first time.
Fostekew finds creative ways to package more observational material – stories on the well-trodden realm of dating apps, for example, lead to the revelation of a very unusual crush and a tangent about public toilet etiquette. She also manages to make serious topics such as freedom of speech and the treatment of same-sex couples accessible and entertaining. The result is a curious and relentlessly funny show that more than meets the high bar she set with Hench.