Kate Hammer makes her debut this Edinburgh Fringe with her show, Double Virgin on the Rocks (With a Twist). Here she talks to Pepper&Salt about the concept behind her show, the struggles of having many names and we we do this.
How would you summarise your show?
The show is like a really fun kind of smorgasbord of my brain, but it centers on the theme of names and what they say about us and mean to us, but also how they define our lives. So, it should hopefully leave you thinking about how your name has affected who you are and like if you want to change that.
What led you to choose this theme?
I stumbled upon an article saying that your name actually dictates the way you become yourself over your life. So, if your name is Dan, you’ll subtly do all these more decisions over your life to make yourself more Dan-like, and I found that so interesting. That’s kind of what sparked the idea to look at my own name because I’ve used about seven different names over my lifetime, so I’m trying to pinpoint which name I fit under exactly or if I’ve managed to escape this trap of becoming Kate or one of the other seven names that I’ve gone by. The theme is like your identity, but really looking at it through the lens of literally what you’re called.
One of the reasons why I went started going by different names just because my last name was like slightly hard to pronounce, and it was just a German one. And so, but then I was like, “Well, if I’m a performer, I’ll switch it to this.” I did LA exam when I was younger, and they spelled my last name wrong and I just never got around to changing it. So it’s like even on these big certificates that say I did something. It’s someone else. It’s not me.
How does you title relate to the show?
So Double Virgin on the Rocks with a Twist basically encompasses what my name means. So, Catherine means virgin. My middle name of Lee also means virgin and hammer means stone, it’s like double virgin on the rocks. And then the twist goes back to my legal last name, which means lime tree. It’s actually quite clever and layered, but it like fits into this like double virgin on the rocks really well. That’s why it’s titled that to instead of just naming it Names or something like that, it is focusing on me and my experience with names, but everything I do as a performer, I try and include the audience into every show so that every show is a little bit different. It feels very connective. So even though it is about me, it will kind of bring in other people’s experiences with either their own experiences or people they know.
Why do you think we do this, go by many names or change our names depending on s given situation?
In my work in progresses, I’ve noticed that so many people go by different names because it’s just easier. So, there was one who her name’s Gabriela. She said, “I just go by Gabby because, you know, people find Gabriela too hard.” And it’s like, what? But if you prefer a name, you know, you can feel you almost feel like a bad or uptight person by saying, no, I prefer my longer form of name. I guess also as a human species, we like shorter. We like to shorten things into more digestible or quicker. If I’m going to call out your name, I want it to be one or two syllables.
We give each other these nicknames. I think it spawns out of that of just for quickness. But at the same time, I think there’s something really nice about having a nickname given to you by someone you love out of like a connection or warmth. It could have something to do with your name or nothing to do with your name. But there’s something that, you know, your best friend calling you something is so special and sweet that you can have multiple names and maybe it’s a good thing. But at the same time, it does change how you act under that name. For instance, my parents gave us all quite long names because they wanted us to be able to, me and my three brothers, to be able to shorten them if we wanted to be, you know, for social situations, but have longer name if we wanted to sound more professional. So, my full name is Catherine, but right away out of the womb, I was called Katie. So, it’s like immediately there’s this dissonance of like, what is your name? And when I go to pick up tickets, I never know. I reel off four different names of what I could have booked it under. And they think I’m a fraud for sure.
How do you think what you’re exploring in the show can be played out by audiences members afterward?
So there’s a couple points where I directly talk to the audience. I think our grandparents did it a lot. They went by different names. And that’s a big point of what it’s only when somebody passes away that you realize you’ve kind of been, not lied to, but you’re like, “How come I didn’t know this?” My grandma was called a completely different name for her whole life than what was her legal name or different friends who decide to go by names, which can be for so many different reasons. And they’re all valid.
I don’t think, you know, ever changing a name is a bad thing unless it is for financial fraud or theft, identity theft, I don’t go into that kind of aspect. There’s something really nice about reflecting on, “Oh, I wonder how my name has affected me and made me do these choices.” It is scary how many times I’m right, that if there’s a Dan in the audience, he probably has a beard and they’re probably wearing glasses or have had corrective surgery. But it’s just this like strange thing of Dan, we match our names in a certain way. So yeah, I hope the audience takes away just something that they’ve not thought about before, because I find we, most people don’t question what we’re called or different things we’re just trying to get through life. So it’s kind of a fun, you know, side tour off your normal daily stressors.
And another thing to think about what you would have been like, if you were named something else, or do you prefer a certain name? Because also, the other thing when I ask people is like, “What, what would you prefer to have been called? Or what do you prefer to be called?” And they’re like, “Oh, I don’t mind.” I’m like, “That’s great. But also, I’m sure you do. I’m sure if you thought about it, there is like something that suits you or, you know, feels more true to yourself.”
It all sounds quite John Proctor-ey, “Because it is my name!” That kind of thing.
I also talk about the case of Robert Lane, who named his sons Winner and Loser. nHe just decided to do a little experiment on his own. And Winner actually ended up being a criminal in jail for a ton of his life, domestic abuse, terrible things. And Loser became started working at the NYPD. So, a lot of people are like, “Well, that’s it. It’s proof that your name doesn’t have control over your life.” I think it’s proof that it does. They were fighting so hard against, you know, Loser was fighting so hard against being a loser that they overcompensated and Winner got it so good. It’s just interesting. It’s nice to take it so seriously and discuss it because it’s a fun conversation without having maybe there’s no big consequences to this, because we will never know what we would have been like if we were named something else.
By Katerina Partolina Schwartz
Photo Credit: Chris Dudley
Pepper & Salt 
Leave a comment