Bitch Boxer

Katherine Shearer comes out swinging in Bitch Boxer, an inspiring one-woman show making its NSW debut at the Old 505 Theatre.

She was so inspired by English playwright Charlotte Josephine’s “heart-warming, energetic” script that it didn’t take her long to approach for the rights to produce and act in her own production.

Based on the true event of women being allowed to compete in Olympic boxing for the first time ever in the 2012 Olympics, Katherine explained that Josephine’s script is less about boxing and more about “women doing something that was outside the norm of their expectations”.

The audience meets Chloe in the hour before the qualifying fight that will decide whether she will make it into the Olympics, and joins her on a journey exploring her life, relationships and the circumstances that led her to discover boxing as an outlet to express herself and channel her anger.

Shearer has faced arduous challenges in order to portray Chloe. Aside from a yearlong boxing fitness regime to achieve the lean build and energy of a boxer (that was stepped up in the past few months thanks to training with 51kg NSW boxing champion Eleanor Boden); she has also had to develop a rough East London accent and made a surprisingly difficult adjustment to performing solo for the first time.

In what she describes as  “a character that as female actors, we don’t get to play all that often”, Shearer brings wholehearted passion and dedicated preparation to a genuinely dynamic female role. “It won’t be what people expect.”

May 26 – 31, The Old 505 Theatre, Suite 505, 342 Elizabeth St, Surry Hills, $22-$33, tickets: http://www.trybooking.com/HKPT