Harriet Moir brings shifting vulnerability and the full force of a woman who’s found her own skin and finds it comfy to her show Just Eat the Damn Sausage.

There are ‘sausage’ themes throughout, with that implication in the show’s name no doubt giving the men in the audience the confidence that they would find Harriet’s comedic narrative comfortably familiar – to their credit, only one that I could see looked out of his depth.

Arriving through the audience wearing a smart stripy apron and not another stitch, towing a small barbecue, Harriet holds the audience in the palm of her hand from the get-go. Everyone laughs, all the way through, from snort laughs to ‘relatable cackles’ to huffs of sympathy. Her story is a familiar story to many women and people who have the pleasure of storing a uterus inside their bodies. It’s a story of discovery, shame, confusion, hilarity, pride, sensuality and everything in between. Harriet gives us a masterclass in many things including consent – for the man who hops on stage so she can give him a taste of what it’s like for a woman getting ready in the morning and noting that she gets her daughters’ consent before sharing their stories. 

She’s staunch in her body-positive stance while being gentle with herself and us about what it took for her – and might take for us – to get there. Her vulnerability glows – there’s a differently soft vulnerability on her face when she talks about her girls – and her strength vibrates.

Harriet takes us on a ride – part rollercoaster, part house of horrors, part gentle scooter down a beachfront esplanade – and she shares the painful parts of her story with as much energy and comfort as the ridiculous parts. (I know we’ll all be keeping an eagle eye on the  candidate profiles come election time.) 

I also believe that, of the full house audience last night, there will be half a dozen or more women who left the show with a new way of looking at some aspects of their life, and with a seed of new confidence or courage or steel in their heart or their mind that will help them consider what might need to change. This is the whole point of experiencing the arts.

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