They have answered it, to date, 143 different ways.

Never the same twice, clyde forth’s improvisational “Mouthful/Score” promises a captivating and sometimes harrowing journey through the intimate territory of transformation. Shifting between the explosive and the restrained, this program of two original works offers an open-ended exploration of contradictory female standards.

“Mouthful” is entirely improvised on a diagrammatic score; a visual diagram that maps the stage into territories defined by female archetypes. Within these territories - landscaped by the electronic music of Bob Lukomski - Alison Robinson and clyde forth negotiate the gestures, identities and questions of women from the endearing to the absurd.

These complex negotiations break down into two simple acts in “Score for Thinking About Error and Progress 1: dressing and undressing. Repeated in a dynamic flow of color, texture and restrained movement, “Score…” blurs the boundaries drawn in “Mouthful”.

Devised and directed by clyde forth, “Mouthful” and “Score for Thinking About Error and Progress I” combine movement, sonic landscape, text and visuals to excavate the unpredictable territory of femininity. But this isn’t your mother’s feminist performance art. Roles and relationships slide on a slippery slope in real time from sisterhood and motherhood to the history of women and your own childhood memories; from what is “womanly” to what is not clearly gendered at all.

The two pieces are presented back to back with a short pause between. As they are improvised, no two performances are exactly alike. In fact, they may not be alike at all. They could be entirely contradictory. Now, isn’t it just like a woman?