New Barestage Production Offers Searing Humor, Satire

Vicious. Spiteful. Wicked. These are just a few of the hatefully hissed adjectives that bombard the audience in the opening scene of Barestage’s “The Women.” Constantly backstabbing each other, the characters in the play embody these qualities to the fullest. However, while these women are indeed evil, they are also silly, naive, and laughable. This paradox is sustained for the entirety of “The Women,” as the audience is taken on an appalling yet entertaining journey that includes but is not limited to: Drunken stumbling, husband stealing, and a good old fashioned slap-fight—all in the name of womanhood.

“The Women,” which runs this Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. in Cesar Chavez Student Center’s Choral Rehearsal Hall, tells the story of four Park Avenue Princesses: Mary, Sylvia, Peggy, and Edith. Some of these women are innocent and some are malicious, but they all have one thing in common: They think that they need a man to live a happy life. When Mary finds out that her husband is cheating on her with the younger, “common” Crystal, the world she knows is shattered. The rest of the play centers around Mary’s struggle to accept her divorce and live independently, all while the women around her continue to cycle through husbands and blame each other for it.

While Mary is the main character, she is outshone by the evil women of the play. Tova Katz’s eternally-pregnant Edith is particularly

outstanding—waddling across the stage with one hand on her swollen belly and the other holding a cigarette to her red lipsticked mouth, she shit-talks everything from Peggy’s poor financial state to Mary’s watercress sandwiches (“Watercress?! I might as well eat my way across a lawn!”). Edith is a gross representation of womanhood, popping out child after child to carelessly throw onto the pile, and Katz embodies that grossness so well that her performance alone is enough reason to go see this play.

Another memorable performance is given by Dani Loebs, who plays Crystal. A salesgirl at Saks, Crystal connives her way into the upper class by seducing men. With false hopes that money will bring her happiness, Crystal tramples the hearts of both women and men to get what she wants. Loebs is great as Crystal, as she manages to sustain a look of curlyblonde innocence, all with an evil glint in her eye. With Crystal, we get the impression that everyone around her is simply a pawn in her much larger game of chess.

However, “The Women” is ultimately about men’s ability to make women turn on each other. While there are no men in the cast, their presence is felt everywhere. At the hairdresser’s, women screech as they burn their scalps to become “naturally blonde” for their husbands. They study their aging reflections, hoping they won’t be left for a younger woman. They pull each other’s hair over a cheating husband. And while this feminist theme may seem somewhat extreme, women like this did exist and still exist today. Overall, the central message of the play is not anti-male, but rather pro female independence, encouraging real women to get their priorities straight before they end up looking as idiotic as the women onstage.

In her director’s note, Carla Neuss writes “My hope for you … is that you can sometimes laugh at (the women) and yet also wonder with them what people, men and women alike, are truly seeking for their happiness and fulfillment.” In flawlessly straddling the entertaining and the scary, Barestage’s production of “The Women” elicits just that response.

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