Sleev, a rich and promiscuous woman wants to confess her scandalous sexual history to a world that has never dared acknowledge it. . .the men are at war. the women weave a great tapestry portraying the conflict. the death of Sleev’s husband in battle compels her to insinuate her sexual adventures into the tapestry, provoking fear and hostility in all those around her. In her struggle to assert the right to depict her personal experience Howard Barker has created another gloriously self-willed, erotic and fascinating character, returning to the theme of the subversion of public art by individual expression he first explored in Scenes From an execution. the piece explores the role of the mirror, the autobiography and the self-portrait in an intriguing and unpredictable way.
