



Passers-by watched in amazement as a woman, dressed as a vagina, stopped an attack on a man, dressed as a penis. The incident took place on a Friday afternoon, last week, in Glastonbury High Street, England.

The Vagina and Penis were performers with the Nomadic Academy of Fools, who were out in the High Street promoting their production Fooling Around, four days of plays at the Glastonbury Assembly Rooms. It is believed that a member of the public took great offense at the actor dressed as a penis and began to attack him. Performer Chris Kelly, who was dressed as the penis, later explained:

“He started shouting at me, saying it was disgusting and children could see us. I could tell by his body language that he was really angry. I tried to calm him down, I wasn’t looking for a fight; but he grabbed my hat, tore it off and chucked it on the pavement.”

Both the Penis and the Vagina then headed back towards the Assembly Rooms. In the meantime, another member of the public had telephoned the police. The actress, Joanne Tremarco, who was dressed as the Vagina, told police they did not want to press any charges against the man.

“Then he explained that I needed to take the costume off, or I could be arrested. They also removed flyers for the plays we were performing.”

Ms. Tremarco understood how some members of the public could be offended by their costumes, but went on to explain:

“We’re trying to highlight the contradiction in society. People were offended by us walking around in costume, but it’s nothing you can’t see in magazines and newspapers that are often displayed in a child’s eye-line. On the whole, the reaction we had was positive from most people.”

The Nomadic Academy of Fools agreed not to give any more street performances, while a spokesperson for the Assembly Rooms said:

“We were deeply surprised by the reaction of the police in this situation. This is not the first time these shows have been performed here. The plays were very well attended and we experienced no trouble at the venue.”

Inspector Mark Nicholson, of Avon and Somerset Police, said:

“We wouldn’t have stopped the play going ahead, but it’s not appropriate to have costumes and swear words like that in the streets where young children and other people could see them and be offended.”

The incident has been the talk of Glastonbury, and led to one of the most bizarre headlines in the local press.





Via Arbroath, with thanks to Saskia Baron