[NoHo Arts District, CA] – A NoHo Arts theatre review of My Mother Doesn’t Know I’m Kinky written and performed by Jean Franzblau, directed by Carly DW Bones, developed with Karen Aschenbach, and original song by Eric Schwartz at the Whitefire Theatre’s Solofest 2024.
Well, this was one of the most interesting solo shows I have ever been to! Jean Franzblau’s wickedly funny and highly informative journey through her ever-evolving sexuality, her exploration with BSDM, and trying to find love when you prefer to dominate in the bedroom…but so does your partner… is truly an extraordinary 90 minutes or so!
My Mother Doesn’t Know I’m Kinky is a highly emotionally as well as a deeply intellectual play. It covers Jean’s life as her particular interests reveal themselves to her, so to speak. She had always felt a little more adventurous than those around her. Although, to be fair, how many people do you know who share what they like sexually, even if they do even actually know? So for us to compare ourselves in that way to anyone else around us is probably a pretty futile exercise.
But Jean is fearless in her search for answers to her body’s predilections and her curiosity leads her to the ultimate realization that our brains are indeed our most important sexual organ. As well as the epiphany that fetish and pleasure should be not only celebrated but fully integrated into our everyday lives as much as anything else we are drawn to.
This gorgeous sensual woman captives her audience with her riveting story of self discovery. But not with cheap thrills and tawdry anecdotes, with honesty and openness and a level of confidence that can only be reached by being well earned and well intentioned. Although there are some really funny and brutally honest non-tawdry anecdotes…
Jean brings us into the world of BSDM, how it functions outside of the bedroom and the fascinating story of her unfolding into the woman she has so brilliantly become. She falls in love, she discovers she needs to be her complete self and she forgives herself for that. Her sexuality is a huge part of her life. It has led her to her calling, helping others understand themselves, explore themselves and heal themselves. She is also an onset intimacy coordinator, and has been featured on Buzzfeed, TLC, Rolling Stone, Dr Phil and The Kardashians. Quite a journey… don’t you think? From naive, repressed and depressed to a woman positively oscillating with sensual energy, love and strength.
Jean truly is an incredible performer. Absolutely hilarious and disarming, she dances and flits across the stage, becoming every character with subtly and grace. It almost didn’t seem like a solo show in fact. The characters were so visceral and real.
Her story is her own, and yet I found myself connecting with it on so many levels. Her search for meaning, connection, love. A large part of sexuality is about letting go, trusting ourselves, being present, but that’s a real-life lesson all of us need to repeat again and again and again. The center, the root, the very beginning of life is sexual. How strange then that it has become so darkened and hidden and diminished in our always and urgent out-in-the-open world.
My Mother Doesn’t Know I’m Kinky is one of the best solo shows I have seen. It’s nuanced, beautifully written and perfectly balanced. Raw when it needs to be, polished when it requires and always giving the very most to its audience with humor, pivotal revelations and purposeful, hugely important outcomes.
I love love loved it and if you are looking for a show that reminds you what it is to be yourself in all your glory then look no further. My Mother Doesn’t Know I’m Kinky is a life-affirming, funny, spiritual wander through the life of a very, very interesting woman. And yes, her mother didn’t know she was kinky…but now she does. And apparently, she’s totally okay with it.
You can find out more about the show and find out when you can see it next on Jean Franzblau’s website: https://www.jeanfranzblau.com/
Jean will be performing My Mother Doesn’t Know I’m Kinky at Hollywood Fringe Festival on the following dates: June 10, 15, 19, 23, 29.
The production is currently fundraising to take the show to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. (The fundraiser continues through mid-April.)
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/my-mother-doesn-t-know/x/14448246#/