As if Mondays weren’t filled with enough PowerPoint excitement, Bridge Theatre played host to one of the quirkiest presentations of this new week. ‘Hello Boys’ is primarily a show about feminism and the subtitle ‘How Feminism Can Save the World, If Not Your Sex Life’ was enough to tempt a varied audience through the arctic temperatures into a cosy theatre.

Catherine (co-founder of the Women’s Equality Party) and Grayson (Britain’s primary transvestite potter) make a pleasingly odd couple with her politically-committed ideas juxtaposed with his more zany (though no less sincere) musings on the human, male and transvestite experience. Part 1 of the show explored their thesis that feminism is good for everyone and debunking some of the widest held fears and misconceptions held by their opponents (if that is the correct word). With humour that would be typical of the evening, they opened with some of the rejected titles Grayson had suggested. Of these ‘An evening for smug feminists to nod along to’ was knowingly close to the bone given the ‘home crowd’. However, the interrogation of topics such as vote splitting and the clear society-wide benefits of intentional equality as embraced in Iceland (for instance) grounded idealism in tangible, actionable context.

After a slightly odd opening to Part 2 (the presentation of the inaugural Afflatus Award for Services to Women) there followed a ‘Q&A’ open to the floor and those who had been tweeting during the show. Although none of these contributions were particularly searching, the dialogue was a fine demonstration of the respectful and discursive tone that can be struck when due thought is given to considerate interaction. A greater question is perhaps how to have this sort of conversation in a more aggressive setting.

From the heavy (intersectionality) to the frozen (who gets the ice creams when there are equal queues for theatre toilets) this was an evening that delivered a quality of presentation and discussion that presented a progressive model for modern feminist conversation for all of us. The call to arms at the end was for good-humoured communication about important issues benefitting us all and it’s hard to argue (badly) with that.