Opening tonight as Brighton Tour Ready Award Winner – seen at Sydney Festival by the Brighton Fringe Team – Lucy Peach’s PG awareness-raising-show about the menstrual cycle has been repeatedly banned by facebook’s advertising standards.In 2018 Lucy Peach used an image of a grapefruit to promote her show “My Greatest Period Ever” this simple visual metaphor was deemed unsavory by facebook and instagram standards and all adverts were banned.Jump forward to 2019 and Lucy Peach arrives in Brighton for a run of the same show – My Greatest Period Ever.

A video of her lying on a beach, in a red swimsuit, speaking to a camera on a drone which then zooms right out to show the four pie-chart like wedges of primary colours painted for meters out beyond her torso and legs in the sand,  was also deemed unsuitable by advertising standards. “This ad isn’t running because it incudes an image or video depicting excessive skin or nudity.”

“My Greatest Period Ever” is a theatre-show in four sections, interspersed with songs written by Lucy, one of Australia’s most well-known folk-pop singers. The show talks about how to harness menstrual power and uses the four phases of the month to illustrate how a menstruating person may feel based on their hormones at every stage of the cycle. It is a simple manual that effectively explains away how one feels at any stage – a topic definitely not covered in the regular sex education of girls and women OR boys or men.  These four sections also happen to be the wedges used in the video taken down by instagram.

The show nor advert features any bleeding or nudity but very much looks at the head and heart of a body as it responds to a cycle.High school sex educator, Red School alumni and award-winning musician, Lucy Peach encourages menstruators to look inwards, pay attention and harness the power of their own hormonal seasons.

The reaction of the Facebook and Instagram algorithm perfectly illustrates the historic patriarchal shame and stigma attached to periods that Lucy is fighting. Through science, songs, jokes and stories, Lucy tells the tale of how she found inspiration and pride in her menstrual cycle, discovering a new way of life and unlocking and amplifying her creativity along the way. On stage with her husband and cartoonist Richard, who creates live illustrations bringing Lucy’s message to life, Peach charts the normal, the magical and the excuses that a period could afford you. Witness the proof, the capes and learn how to life-hack your menstrual cycle from a curse into your ‘Greatest Period Ever’.

The Power of the Period | Lucy Peach | TEDxPerth13 Feb 2018:

BRIGHTON FRINGE FESTIVAL 2019 Junkyard Dogs: The Doghouse Brighthelm Centre North Road BN1 1YDWed 8th – Sat 11th May, inclusive, @ 9.30pmWed 15th and Thurs 16th May @ 9.30pmFri 17th and Sat 18th May @ 2pm