Silly goose

‘The Silly Goose’ is a performative monodrama whose starting point is imposter syndrome – a cognitive bias characterised by a lack of confidence in one’s own abilities. It is estimated that around 70 per cent of the world’s population experiences this phenomenon at some stage in their lives.

The play’s author is a ‘golden child’ – she has always had top marks, won awards and enjoyed success. It is just a pity that she does not deserve any of it. Her achievements to date are a matter of chance, a mistake, a strange stroke of luck. In a world where she has shamelessly turned her sobbing into lying, her own body constantly undermines its own worth. It crumbles under the weight of doubt, turns everything upside down, until finally it snaps, transforming into a self-deprecating farce.

The imposter syndrome – the female imposter – is revealed in the performance as a mechanism for performing the self. On stage, what is actually experienced clashes with what is acted out; an autobiographical confession clashes with the deliberate manipulation of one’s own image. ‘The Silly Goose’ examines how insecurity becomes a role that can be repeated until it begins to shape the way one thinks about oneself. Intimate fear turns out to be more than just a private experience here. It also stems from a world that demands one constantly prove one’s own worth, whilst at the same time providing reasons to doubt it.