Butchery Lessons by Emmeline Chuy
by hailo
Last fall, my manager Sean Forde and I went to the Tank, a theater in midtown, to see Butchery Lessons by Emmeline Chuy.
Butchery Lessons tells the story of Jo, a waitress and 21st century crash out, contemplating the loss of her twin, family trauma, and why she can’t get her life together through drugs, therapy, hot chef, and hustling.
We watch art, or anything in that matter, for the things that expand our mind, our hearts, and make us feel seen. The scenes that stick with me are the surreal, trippy cuts between scenes as actors crawl on the floor to Sexy Boy, a song sent to me bad the sad but hot older executive who christened me into the messy world of creative people in New York looking for home in hedonism or healing in the purity of others.
And there’s one chilling scene, after Jo sleeps with the hot chef, where she sits in his bathroom and sees the toothbrush of his girlfriend as she pees. I think we have all had toothbrush moments like this.
Some of my toothbrush moments are:
- “I thought you knew this couldn’t be a thing”
- “You are a problem”
- or “I’m in town twice a year and want to spend time with you” from a man I wanted a college recommendation from
Jo is a wild woman in a society that doesn’t know how to handle one. The person willing to be honest, messy, and to try to run forward until her past finally catches up with her.
The answer is usually never drugs, but it can be journaling, going to a dark club for five hours, or dating people who make you feel girlish and excited or at the very least.
We collect experiences like animal, and like puppy’s or wolves, or Nitghtbitches, we have to run really hard, rest, bite back occasionally, and shake others’ ignorances, egoic complexes, and girlfriend’s toothbrushes off.
Butchery Lessons is fun, inventive, and honest. A rarity in an artistic industry that's afraid to take risk. Butchery Lessons gives me hope in indie art and in the future of narratives around messy women.